PPCO Twist System - Ornament Magazine

Transcription

1 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
CONTENTS
ORNAMENT MAGAZINE • VOLUME 37, NO. 1
36 NEWSPAPER FASHION
Wearing Headlines
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Ashley Callahan provides the exposé on clothing made or
derived from newspapers since the trend began in the nineteenth century. Meticulous
reporting by Callahan follows documented examples and the waves of fascination
society has had with this most contemporaneous fashion statement.
42 PAT PRUITT
Prototype to Perfection
Diana F. Pardue gives an insightful commentary on the evolution of Pat Pruitt,
a Native American jeweler who uses stainless steel, titanium and other modern
alloys as his artistic choice. Coming from a background of deep involvement with
machinery, Pruitt’s work is all about the endless search for precision.
48 CELIE FAGO
One Twig, One Hinge, One Book at a Time
Carl Little investigates the life and methodology of multi-material jewelry artist Celie
Fago. Fago’s work employs everything that comes to hand, from twigs to polymer
and precious metal clay, to traditional metalsmithing. Her experiences in teaching
tie into the larger sum of her artistic experience.
54 SUZI CLICK
An Eclectic Cross Cultural Style
Tamara W. Hill explores the bohemian flair assembled by clothing designer Suzi
Click. This transplanted Texan takes textiles and elements from across the world and
combines them into stylish ensembles that are neo-tribal; while paying aesthetic
homage to their roots, the new incarnations have their own distinct interpretation.
60 SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
Patrick R. Benesh-Liu gives an overview of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s
jewelry and fiber programs. He examines how SCAD seeks to grant its students the
opportunity to pursue any of the various craft-related careers, from industry jobs to being
an entrepreneur. He takes firsthand testimony from alumni, who give their thoughts on
both their time at SCAD, and how they have found the world to be after graduation.
CONTRIBUTORS
6
LETTERS FROM OUR READERS
10
ETHNOGRAPHIC JEWELRY
16
The surprising beauty of vintage Chinese bangles are
revealed in this article, demonstrating the workmanship
of the unknown craftsperson.
FIBER ARTS
20
A recent exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum featured
the groundbreaking fashion developments of Japanese
designers since the 1980s.
ORNAMENT NEWS
24, 74
Find out the latest and greatest exhibits and
events involving wearable art around the world.
RETROSPECTIVE
32
The Exquisite Lightness of Being explores the recent
retrospective of Ken Loeber’s jewelry and hollowware
over the past several decades.
THE ORNAMENT BOOKSHELF
66
Reading publications on jewelry, clothing and craft
keeps appreciation for the written word alive.
JEWELRY ARTS
68
The American Jewelry Design Council holds an exhibition
celebrating past participants of its design projects at the
Forbes Galleries.
COMMUNITIES
70
The Tucson Gem and Mineral Shows include several
ethnographically centered venues, which are given
the spotlight in this article.
ADVERTISING INDEX
78
POSTSCRIPT FROM THE EDITORS
80
Cover: O BOOK of sterling silver, fourteen and twentyfour karat gold (keum-boo), 2.2 by 1.9 centimeters, 2013.
Photograph by Robert Diamante.
54
BACHMAL JACKET of velvet ikat from Uzbekistan, Mongolian
lamb trim, silk lining. Hat made from Uzbek suzani, vintage
tapestry and tassel from Uzbekistan. Photograph by Suzi Click.
Coeditors Carolyn L. E. Benesh
Robert K. Liu, Ph.D.
Associate Editor Patrick R. Benesh-Liu
Art Director Joseph M. Harper
Marketing Director Stephanie A. Morris
Contributors Glen R. Brown
Ashley Callahan
Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
Leslie Clark
Jo Lauria
Carl Little
Robin Updike
Contact Us 760.599.0222
[email protected]
Customer Service 800.888.8950
O RNAMENT CELEBRATES A UNIQUE ART because its
context is the human being. Our creative energies are drawn
from an appreciation that what we make to adorn ourselves
is a beautiful and meaningful expression of life.
OUR VISION IS RICH in contemporary, ethnographic and
ancient history, anthropology, and archaeology. We believe
that we can help sustain a healthy and compassionate
society when we know more about our own and other
cultures. As an international resource for thirty seven years,
Ornament encompasses the world.
FROM THE BEGINNING we set ourselves the exciting challenge
of documenting the art and craft of personal adornment.
Ornament demonstrates the richness and diversity of this
vast subject with a stunning display of creative works, past
and present.
W ITH INFORMATIVE PROFILES we support emerging and
established artists in jewelry and wearable fiber who create
artworks that stimulate, enrich and invigorate us today and are
a profound and exquisite legacy for the years ahead.
K NOWLEDGE SHAPES THE PRESENT AND FUTURE
when we renew our bonds both with the recent past
and antiquity, revealing or tracing historical roots and
customs, aesthetics, materials, and technical processes.
Ornament exists to educate, inform and inspire.
WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN ORNAMENT as we embark on
a rewarding journey of discovery. Add your vision to ours.
Together we will make this world a little more meaningful,
a little more beautiful, and a little bit better.
Founded May 1, 1974
Or nament
Globally Inspired
M aga z in e
Crafted in America
The ar t and craft of
B
e
a
d
s
a d o r n m e n t
Clothing
c e l e b r a t e
Jewelry
o r n a m e n t
To S u b s c r i b e , R e n e w a n d G i v e a G i f t
1.800.888.8950 ornamentmagazine.com
1.800
contributors
Carolyn L. E. Benesh
Carolyn L. E. Benesh is Coeditor of Ornament Magazine and specializes in contemporary
jewelry and clothing. It is with great appreciation that she unveils the first retrospective of
Ken Loeber’s ethereal jewelry and silversmithing at the Racine Art Museum. Presenting more
than two decades of Loeber’s explorations of space and form, the exhibition covers Loeber’s
distinctive works not only in one-of-a-kind, but limited-edition and production jewelry,
and his early hollowware. She also contributes a write-up on the American Jewelry
Design Council. p. 32, 68
Patrick R. Benesh-Liu
Patrick R. Benesh-Liu is Associate Editor for Ornament Magazine and has written articles on
museum exhibitions, contemporary jewelers and clothing makers, and craft shows. In this issue
he gives an exposé on the Savannah College of Art & Design, a multi-national institution with
its main campus based in its eponymous town. He describes how in the modern age, humanity
despite its struggles is finally equipped to pursue its own dreams and desires, and relates how
SCAD works to support a person’s interest in reinventing themselves as an artist and
craftsperson. He also compiles the latest jewelry and clothing related events from around the
world in Ornament’s news section. p. 24, 60
Ashley Callahan
Ashley Callahan is an independent scholar and curator in Athens, Georgia, with a specialty in
modern and contemporary American decorative arts. She has written books and curated
exhibitions on sisters Ilonka and Mariska Karasz, Hungarian-born modern designers based in
New York, and Henry Eugene Thomas, a Colonial Revival furniture craftsman from Athens. She
enjoys documenting the decorative arts history of the Southeast and promoting the region’s
efforts to celebrate craft and design. The newspaper dress from Dalton, which inspired her to
investigate the topic of newspaper fashion, came to her attention as part of her research for a
book she is writing on the history of chenille fashion for the University of Georgia Press. p. 36
Tamara W. Hill
Tamara W. Hill is a multifaceted artist and jewelry designer, as well as a photographer, free-lance
writer, art history teacher, independent scholar, and curator, who began her career as a
contemporary art critic for Artforum magazine. She has authored three books ranging in subject
from early American gravestone designs and symbols to modern painting and traditional Bolivian
weavings. Hill has traveled widely, documenting sacred monuments, historical sites, shrines, and
handpainted trade signs throughout the world. Like her admired colleague Suzi Click, Hill has
been an avid collector of ethnographic jewelry, folk arts and textiles. Originally from the New
York area, she has resided in San Francisco for over thirty years. p. 54
contributors
Carl Little
Carl Little, on a sunny late August afternoon, sat down with Vermont jeweler Celie Fago in the
dining hall at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, to talk about her life and
art. Fago was in Maine to teach “A Perfect Pairing: PMC and Polymer Clay Bracelets.” The
dialogue that ensued provides a fascinating window into the rituals that make up Fago’s life.
Little is jurying the Maine Craft Association’s “The Inspired Hand VI” exhibition at the
Lewiston-Auburn College Atrium Art Gallery. His latest book is Nature & Culture: The Art of
Joel Babb (University Press of New England). p. 48
Robert K. Liu
Robert K. Liu has primarily been OrnamentÕs ethnographic and ancient jewelry researcher, and
is mutual Coeditor with Carolyn L. E. Benesh. His contributions to our latest issue include an
overview of the ethnographic shows taking place at the upcoming Tucson Gem & Mineral
extravaganza, where he notes a shift in buying trends as well as providing advice on how to
tackle the overwhelming amount of material present. He also pens an appreciative article
examining old Chinese bangles, which, made by folk artisans, were well crafted despite the
anonymity of its creators. p. 16, 70
Diana F. Pardue
Diana F. Pardue is curator of collections at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, and has
extensive experience with Native American jewelers and artisans across the Southwest. Pardue
gives readers insight into the atypical work of Pat Pruitt, distilling his stainless steel jewelry to
its essence, the pursuit of precision. She recently co-authored with Norman L. Sandfield the
book Native American Bolo Ties: Vintage to Contemporary Artistry. Pardue is also the author of
Shared Images: The Innovative Jewelry of Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird (2007) and Contemporary
Southwestern Jewelry (2007). p. 42
Robin Updike
Robin Updike is an arts writer in Seattle, Washington, who is a long-time contributor to
Ornament Magazine. Her latest investigation into the arts is a review of the aptly named
“Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion,” which recently showed at the Seattle Art
Museum and is now showing at the Peabody Essex in Salem, Massachusetts. “Japanese
designers have broadened the vocabulary of style in the West,” says Updike. “And I’m grateful
they did.” p. 20
le tfro
t emr so ur
re a der s
the power of personal narrative
Thank you for the stunning Artist Statement of Kelly
Morgen in your most recent issue (Vol. 36, No. 5). I so agree
about the power of personal narrative in adornment, and
Kelly’s beautiful necklaces exemplify the strength of story
in all our lives, both the artists and clients. It was a
refreshing change of pace for such a time-worn medium
like jewelry. I hope you will do a more in-depth article with
her in the future.
Elissabeth Banks
Fullerton, California
inspired me as an artist
I just wanted to write and let you know how thankful I am
to have had such a lovely feature in your most recent issue
of Ornament magazine. The pictures and spread came out
beautifully, and I am honored to appear in the publication
that has inspired me as an artist for many years. I so
appreciate the time and effort you took to allow me to be a
part of your wonderful magazine.
Kelly Morgen
San Rafael, California
here’s to ornament
I love your magazine. As a rug hooker for many years I
am well aware of the great pleasure of creating craft and
art. Here’s to Ornament for sharing “the news” with us
all. Please note change of address—I do not want to miss
an issue.
Cecilia Clement
Manhattan, Kansas
your wonderful publication
I save every issue of your wonderful publication
Ornament. I was sad to see that the Vol. 36 No. 4 arrived
in bad condition. The beautiful cover and several pages
got “crunched” up somehow. I am also so happy to have
your Collectible Beads book. I love the history of things,
and beads were and still are currency.
10 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Mary A. Payton
Salem, Oregon
We were pleased to be able to replace your issue, Mary. Our
subscribers should not hesitate to let us know if they are
receiving a damaged copy through the USPS. If we still have an
issue in inventory, we will replace it, no questions asked. We
value our subscribers commitment to and support of Ornament.
Also, thank you for purchasing Collectible Beads. We want to
send out a reader alert. We have less than twenty copies left
from the twenty thousand that were initially printed.
l e tt er s
f r o m o u r re ade rs
from our facebook friends
We really enjoy reading responses that our readers post on
Facebook. Please keep them coming. Call 800.888.8950 or email
[email protected] for these issues. They also
can be ordered online at www.ornamentmagazine.com.
I happened across this new series on PBS and was enthralled
from the beginning. Funny thing, the first thing I wanted to
do was call your office and talk about it, then I was so pleased
to see your names in the credits at the end! What an excellent
record of these wonderful craftspeople. Thank you for
helping to bring it to the world.
Teri Rider
Teri, who was formerly Ornament’s Art Director (and a terrific
one), is referring to the absorbing and informative Craft in
America series produced for PBS and created by Carol Sauvion.
Now with eleven complete episodes, Episode XII debuts Spring
2014 and explores the business of craft and how artists
contribute to local and national economies. Make sure you see it
when the episode shows. Ornament always announces each
episode on our Facebook page and within the magazine itself.
I so look forward to Ornament postings, always beautiful
and inspiring.
Toni Caridi Perkins
Arabic Silver Jewelry, Volume 36, No. 5
It’s an interesting story—I did read it.
Ann Walker
Heavenly things. I have a small business in ethnographica,
partially due to Ornament.
Susan Anne Egon
C’est magnifique! Une reve de bijoux!
Eva Lea Baby
Lisa Anne Auerbach, Volume 36, No. 5
I am now a fan of Lisa Anne Auerbach. What a terrific
combination of art, wit and skill. Thanks for the informative
article and the great photos.
Paige Halsey Slade
Ornament welcomes comments from our readers on all topics
regarding personal adornment. Published letters may be edited
for brevity. On all emails and posted letters please provide your
first and last name, city, state or country. Write to P. O. Box
2349, San Marcos, CA 92079-2349; or email message to
[email protected].
11 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
let us know what you think
12 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
13 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
14 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
15 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
ETHNOGRAPHIC JEWELRY Robert K. Liu
Vintage Chinese Bangles
16 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
R
ecently I had the rare opportunity to examine
vintage Chinese jewelry, in the form of bangles
and bracelets dating from the Qing to the Republic
of China, that had been warehoused by Leekan Designs,
some for decades. I had studied and photographed some
of this same material in 1983-84; similar jewelry from the
Overseas Trading Company inventory was also examined
and described a few years later (Liu 1992).
Like all vintage ethnographic jewelry, as well as ancient
jewelry, the individual craftspeople who made them are
unknown but often the quality of their work equals or
surpasses that of well-known contemporary craftspeople.
Coming from China, with its large populations and
frequent political upheavals that result in large-scale
disposals of items no longer deemed politically correct, the
casual observer might get the impression that when such a
volume of artifacts reaches the market, they cannot
possibly be of good workmanship or materials. Such is
certainly not the case, as evident from many of the
examples shown in this article.
Most of the vintage jewelry in this article has been
termed folk jewelry, not seriously studied but illustrated in a
number of publications, as seen in the citations. Mostly used
by Han Chinese, minorities also wore them, like the Ami of
Taiwan (Liu 1983: fig. 19). Some rattan and silver bangles
have been identified as Mongolian, which I believe is
incorrect (van Cutsem 2003). These arm ornaments were
most likely worn by older women, although smaller
examples perhaps indicate that younger females also used
them, although we really know little about their use. I have
no photographs but do remember my paternal grandmother
and maybe my governess wearing jade bangles.
My recent interest in heatbending bamboo into jewelry
lead me to try and find examples of this organic material
being used for adornment in China, as well as rattan
bangles, which were also bent by heat into jewelry (Liu
2012). Even though I have studied Chinese bangles and
bracelets for many years, I was amazed at the richness and
variety of materials and techniques used for their
manufacture, once I had gathered all my images. This
VINTAGE CHINESE BANGLES OF RATTAN, BAMBOO AND BLACK CORAL dating from the Qing to the Republic of China periods, ranging from 7.3 to 8.8
centimeters in width. Three are rattan and silver, one with braided silver wire and carved. The flat carved bamboo bangle is silver plated with gold
while the last bangle is probably Indonesian black coral, which has been heatbent. While rattan is highly flexible, it was most likely heatbent also.
The bamboo has been carved and may have then been heatbent. Courtesy of Leekan Designs, NYC. Photographs by Robert K. Liu/Ornament.
rattan, bamboo, coral, and more
VINTAGE RATTAN BANGLES WITH DIE-STRUCK OR BRAIDED/KNOTTED WIRE, of excellent crafting, as seen by how crisp are the details of the
diework and the wirework, which may be copper wire gilded with silver. CLOSEUPS OF DIE-STRUCK DECORATIONS on rattan bangles,
one of which has had the background enameled in turquoise, partly worn off. Note the crispness of the die-strikes, except where worn.
RATTAN BANGLES WITH ENAMELED SILVER TUBING, latter with auspicious characters or floral motifs. Such bangles range from 7.3 to 9.0
centimeter diameters. There is often a carved knot on the rattan portion, usually doubled. ENAMEL USE on rattan and all silver metal bangles,
either monochrome or polychrome enamels. Note carved rattan. This page courtesy Leekan Designs.
17 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
VINTAGE RATTAN BANGLES, all of doubled rattan canes, with metal elements, some with auspicious symbols like bats and butterflies.
VINTAGE RATTAN BANGLES OF THREE SIZES, two with same motifs on the silver portion. Range of sizes suggests these were worn by
people of different ages.
18 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
realization came from the serendipity of seeing Leekan’s
collection, followed soon by that of Jacque Eng Wrinkle’s
personal collection, as well as those from the Ornament
photographic archives, recording what I had seen over the
past three decades or more. While I no longer have access
to any of the ornaments shown here except the glass
bangle, I did study them carefully whenever I
photographed them. Allowing for wear, the careful
observer can see that all the metalwork is well-executed,
even though they are the output of craftsmen from
typically simple and crudely equipped small workshops.
But the quality of the die work is excellent, whether struck
per the methods in Najdowski (2011) or cut out
individually afterwards, like the bat or fu symbols on many
bangles. Two part tin molds cast from repoussed patterns
were shown in her article. The silver sheet metal would
have had to have been well annealed, inserted between the
tin molds and struck, or carefully pressed to obtain such
well-formed and distinct impressions. It is not known what
type of molds or dies are used to fabricate the decorated
silver tubes and elements on rattan bracelets, although
Hang (2005) does mention a press mold in the
manufacture of silver and rattan bangles. True repoussé has
been used in making Chinese metal toggles (Cammann
1962), although no tool marks indicative of chasing are
discernible on the metalwork of the bracelets or bangles
used for this article.
Rattan is the most common bangle material, followed
by silver, although bone or ivory, tortoise shell, lacquer,
bamboo, wood (?), coral, jade, glass and metal combined
with the previous substances have been used. Rattan is a
climbing palm and widely used, especially in Southeast
Asia. Rattan bangles combined with gold are in the
collections of the Forbidden City (Hang 2005). Techniques
observed in the sample studied include heatbending,
carving, lacquer-work and kiln-working of glass but the
majority feature metalworking methods: casting, repoussé,
die-striking or press-molding, fabrication, cloisonné,
enameling, wireworking, and stringing of beads.
Although not illustrated in this article, some of the
designs or motifs used on vintage bangles or bracelets date
back to the Han Dynasty, when a molded glass bracelet
carried the theme of opposing dragons with a pearl in their
mouths (Liu 1975: 12.). In bangles, the pearl is represented
as a sphere, usually in metal but lacking the stylized flames
seen in more elaborate jewelry or textiles. Three complex
bangles shown in Liu (1992) have dragon terminals and
two are holding a pearl between them, a Qing
interpretation of the dragon and pearl motif from the Han
glass example. Besides the protective quality of the
materials and the auspicious symbols used to decorate
these arm ornaments, they are also valued for the pleasant
jangling sound made when several are worn together. Thus
these are also called rattan ringing bracelets.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank Anne Lee and Paddy Kan of Leekan Designs for references, translations and
the chance to study their extensive inventory. I also thank Jacque Eng Wrinkle for
allowing me to study her own personal vintage Chinese bangles and bracelets. Sylvia
Kennedy provided her lacquer bangles and photographs of her own rattan bangles,
taken by Sian Kennedy, and sent to me for study.
REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bartholomew, T.T. 2006 Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art. San Francisco, Asian Art
Museum: 352 p.
Cammann, S. 1962 Substance and Symbol in Chinese Toggles. Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania Press: 256 p.
Duda, M. 2002 Four centuries of silver. Personal adornment in the Qing Dynasty and
after. Singapore, Times Edition: 208 p.
Fang, J. 1996 Chinese silvers. Taipei, Monet Designs: 133 p.
Hang, H. 2005 Precious adornment kit. Ming, Ching to Republic of China era. Female
traditional silver ornaments. Beijing, Sanlian Bookstore: 422 p.
Lingley, K. 2007 Excelling the work of heaven. Personal adornment from China.
Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Art Gallery: 158 p.
Liu, R. K. 1975 Ancient Chinese glass beads. Bead Journal 2 (2): 9-19.
—1983 Formosan ornaments and clothing. Ornament 6 (4): 21-27.
—1984 Imported Chinese jewelry. Ornament 7 (4): 56-61-53.
—1992 Wholesale to the trade. Overseas Trading Company. Ornament 15 (3): 104-105.
—2012 Bamboo jewelry. A sustainable resource. Ornament 35 (3): 60-65.
Minick, S. and J. Ping. 1996 Arts and crafts of China. London, Thames and Hudson: 128 p.
Najdowski, P. 2011 Guzang Miao Festival. Ceremonial Silver. Ornament 34 (5): 70-73.
van Cutsem, A. 2003 A world of bracelets. Milan, Skira: 360 p.
Wang, J.H. and B. Zhu 2006 Folk silver. Beijing, China Light Industries Press: 140 p.
VARIETY OF VINTAGE CHINESE BANGLES of silver/enamel; two silver; strung beads of coral, turquoise and silver jump rings on metal base;
cloisonné; three of openwork enamel and one of enamel and lacquer. Courtesy of J. Eng Wrinkle. ADDITIONAL BANGLES FROM WRINKLE’S
PERSONAL COLLECTION of carved wood/bamboo, three of silver; five of rattan and silver with the last of rattan and jade, possibly made to
repair a broken jade bangle. Similar one exists in the Leekan collection, so this may have been a common practice, given the value of jade.
CHINESE BLACK CORAL BANGLE, 8.4 centimeters wide; the coral is supposedly of Indonesian origin and heatbent, with an organic quality not
characteristic of the Chinese. This type of jewelry was also shown in van Cutsem (2005). VINTAGE CHINESE BANGLES, either only tortoise shell or a
base of this organic material overlaid with silver wirework, die-struck silver, fabricated and gilded silver, enameled silver or copper, bezel-set coral,
lapis and turquoise beads and bottom-most, of strung or bezel-set coral, turquoise on a field of soldered decorative elements (Liu 1984). Many are
replete with symbolism. Courtesy of Leekan Designs. VINTAGE CHINESE BANGLES illustrate a range of materials, ranging from rattan with die-struck
silver, carved bamboo with die-struck silver that has been gold plated, heatbent black coral and kiln-worked glass bangle, 7.5 to 8.9 centimeter
diameters. The bamboo and metal bangle has not been previously described in the literature although the black coral has (van Cutsem 2003).
Black horny antipatharian corals are from deep seas and endangered, although the coral for this bangle may have been harvested a century
ago. Glass bangle courtesy of Tao Zeng, others Leekan Designs.
VINTAGE CHINESE BANGLES of tortoise shell, bone (?), two of red lacquer, rattan and die-struck silver, rattan with carved knobs and braided
copper wire and tortoise shell with a band of metal decorations overlaid with bezel-set or strung semiprecious stones. Silver is usually flush with
rattan surface, but not always. The rattan bangles appear to have their skin intact; rattan is both flexible, solid and resistant to splintering, so it is an
ideal material for jewelry subject to hard wear. The lacquer bangles are courtesy of Sylvia Kennedy, the rest from Leekan Designs.
19 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
METAL BANGLES are of silver, one of the classic Chinese Five Metals (Cammann 1962). Note the variety of motifs, forms,
decorative and fabrication techniques. The first bangle has a catch that opens and is decorated with stylized coins. Two of
the bangles or bracelets have dragon terminals; the last bracelet is unusual, being made of metal mesh.
20 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Future Beauty
30 Years of
Japanese Fashion
Robin Updike fiber arts
presented by Kawakubo and Yamamoto startled the
Western fashion world and, to a certain extent,
transformed it.
“Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion,” an
informative and frequently beautiful exhibition recently
showed at the Seattle Art Museum, the exhibition then
moved to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem,
Massachusetts, where it is on view to January 26, 2014.
“Future Beauty” is curated by Akiko Fukai, Director
and Chief Curator of the Kyoto Costume Institute, one
of Japan’s most noteworthy fashion history and
costume foundations. With most of the clothing on
loan from the Kyoto Costume Institute’s collection,
there are outfits by Japan’s most celebrated
contemporary designers from Kenzo Takada and Issey
Miyake, the first Japanese designers to sell their clothing
in the West, to clothing made in the last few years by
Junya Watanabe and Rei Kawakubo. Internationally
famous for her Comme des Garçons label, after more
than forty years in fashion design, Kawakubo is still
highly influential.
The first gallery at the Seattle Art Museum
showcased pieces from the historic 1983 Spring/
Summer Paris shows by Kawakubo and Yamamoto as
well as clothing made as recently as 2009 by Watanabe
and others. The curators here quote from “In Praise of
Shadows,” a famous 1933 essay by the Japanese writer
Junichiro Tanizaki, who described a Japanese
preference for nuance in aesthetics of all kinds, whether
in literature or design. He praised shadows because they
COMME DES GARÇONS by Rei Kawakubo, Spring/Summer 1997. Photograph by
Takashi Hatakeyama. All garments collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute.
21 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
N
ow that asymmetrical silhouettes, unfinished
hems and monochromatic palettes are well
established in mainstream fashion, it is useful
to remember that only thirty years ago such aesthetics
were decidedly outré even in the world of high
fashion. As late as the 1980s trend-setting high fashion
came only from Paris or Milan and it took an expert
eye to discern much difference between French
and Italian design. Then the Japanese arrived and
everything changed.
In the autumn of 1982 Rei Kawakubo and Yohji
Yamamoto presented their 1983 Spring/Summer shows
in Paris and the fashion world reeled. Though the two
Japanese designers had been successful in Japan for a
decade, the minimalist, deconstructed, black and white
collections they sent down the runways in Paris in 1982
were groundbreaking. While French and Italian
designers were making clothes that made women look
like countesses, movie stars or well-heeled hippies,
Kawakubo and Yamamoto presented clothing that was
more liquid sculpture than costume.
The Japanese designers played with light and
shadow with elaborate draping and carefully torn
fabrics. Rather than accentuating the female form with
complicated darts and tucks, as in European and
American fashion, Kawakubo and Yamamoto made
clothing that was layered and cocooned so that the
wearer became a part of a moving sculpture. Though
their ideas were grounded in the nuances of traditional
Japanese design, the superficial austerity of the clothing
22 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
are a subtle meeting of light and darkness,
though shadows are neither entirely dark nor
entirely light. Though the garments here are all
either black or white, the artful draping and
deconstruction of fabric makes for visual
subtleties that are not always quickly detected.
Yamamoto’s black silk taffeta, jacquard
and satin off the shoulder evening gown from
1999 is the most traditional looking piece; but
its dramatically fashioned neckline resembles
folded black paper, and the bronze-dotted
underskirt would create a trompe l’oeil shadow
every time the wearer took a step. The gown is
gorgeous. The art of origami seems to be
implied in many of the outfits, including
some of the earliest ones from Yamamoto
and Kawakubo. A white cotton dress from
Yamamoto’s Spring/Summer 1983 collection
resembles a big cotton bag delicately cut into a
shift and sheared here and there to expose
another cotton layer underneath. The cutouts
give the dress a lightness. It appears to float.
Also explored are themes such as the
relationship between tradition and innovation
in Japanese design and the idea of sculptural
volume in Japanese fashion. Miyake, the
godfather of contemporary Japanese fashion,
had a following for his Fortuny-like pleated
clothing as early as the late 1970s, and by the
1980s he had pushed his interest in pleating
into more experimental directions. A
transparent, hot-pink pleated dress made of
polyester monofilament made by Miyake in
1995 is certainly eye-catching, looking like a
high-tech sail for a racing yacht. Wildly
impractical as clothing, the dress nevertheless
represents Japanese designers intrigue with
unorthodox materials and three-dimensional
form. Watanabe’s 2000/2001 red and yellow
polyester organdy ensemble surely is the apex
of such experimentation—the yellow skirt is a
brilliant yellow honeycomb that puffs out like
an exotic sea sponge.
ISSEY MIYAKE (NAOKI TAKIZAWA) + AYA TAKANO, Kaikai Kiki,
Autumn/Winter 2004. MINTDESIGNS/HOKUTO KATSUI AND NAO
YAGI, Autumn/Winter 2008. Photograph by Taishi Hirokawa.
JUNYA WATANABE, Autumn/Winter 2000. Photograph by
Takashi Hatakeyama. YOHJI YAMAMOTO, Spring/Summer 1998.
Photograph by Takashi Hatakeyama.
23 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
There is quirkiness to some contemporary
Japanese clothing design that is readily visible
in “Final Home,” a see-through vinyl rain
jacket entirely covered in large pockets. The
idea is to stuff the pockets with paper or trash
to create a quilted, theoretically warmer, coat.
Created by Kosuke Tsumura in 1994, the coat
is no doubt a fashion nod to the importance
of recycling and minimizing our impact on
the environment. One gallery, Cool Japan,
featured Japanese street fashions of recent
decades. These life-sized manga and animeinspired outfits were based on the fashion
tastes of Japanese teenagers. But despite their
influence on youthful pop culture, and the fact
that some were created by well-known
designers, it is hard to see the influence of
these Astro Boy and Hello Kitty costumes on
the larger fashion world.
It is a different story as the exhibition
concludes with mini-retrospectives of
Kawakubo, Yamamoto, Miyake, Watanabe,
and Jun Takahashi, the youngest of the
featured designers. These rooms demonstrated
how clothing changed the way younger
western designers thought about design,
construction and apparel aesthetics.
Yamamoto’s cream wool felt dress worn over a
black wool felt skirt from the Autumn/Winter
of 1996/1997 remains a classic of bold design
and tailoring that looks deceptively simple.
The generation of European designers
that included such minimalists as Ann
Demeulemeester and Jil Sander was influenced
by the elegantly austere, sculptural work done
in the 1980s and 1990s by Miyake, Kawakubo
and Yamamoto. And if you are not convinced
that these Japanese designers have influenced
how we think about style, just take a look at
an Eileen Fisher shop, filled with minimalist,
monochromatic, asymmetrically hemmed
clothing. Japan’s fashion innovators have
changed what it means to be stylish, whether
you are in Los Angeles, Paris or Tokyo.
Ornament
News
24 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
HEARD MUSEUM NORTH SCOTTSDALE
THE HEARD MUSEUM NORTH SCOTTSDALE hosts “American Indian Fashion: From Lloyd Kiva New
To Now” through October 26, 2014. Since the mid-twentieth century, American Indian fashion
and design have reinforced Native identity and provided a platform for expression. The exhibit
uses clothing and accessories from the Heard and private collections to examine how materials,
design, style, and accessories honor tradition and create innovative statements on Native
identity and culture. Featured artists include legendary Cherokee designer Lloyd Kiva New, Virgil
Ortiz (Cochiti) and other acclaimed artists. Shown is a coat by Betty David (Spokane).
32633 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, Arizona 85266; 480.488.9817; www.heard.org.
m use um s & g alle ri e s
CALIFORNIA
THE BOWERS MUSEUM hosts “A Quest For Beauty: The Art
of Van Cleef & Arpels” through February 15, 2014. Spanning
over one hundred years of history, the exhibition allows
visitors to view jewelry, watches and precious accessories,
as well as archival drawings and documents of the Place
Vendôme High Jewelry Maison. More than two hundred
pieces from the private collections of Van Cleef & Arpels will
be on display for the international exhibition.
2002 North Main St., Santa Ana, CA 92706; 714.567.3600;
www.bowers.org.
THE DE YOUNG MUSEUM features “The Art of Bulgari:
La Dolce Vita & Beyond, 1950–1990” through February 17,
2014. Since its founding in Rome in 1884, Bulgari has been
an internationally recognized name in jewelry design. This
exhibition focuses on the decades of the 1950s through the
1980s. In the period after World War II Bulgari began to
create a unique style inspired by Greco-Roman classicism,
Italian Renaissance and nineteenth-century Roman school
of goldsmiths. The exhibition presents approximately one
hundred fifty pieces from this era, along with sketches and
other materials from the Bulgari archives.
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr., San Francisco, CA 94118;
415.750.3600; deyoung.famsf.org.
SHIBUMI GALLERY hosts a joint exhibition, “Giovanna
Torrico: Sequin Jewelry” and “Kenlynn Wilson: Knitwear”
from February 8 through March 30, 2014. Torrico’s work with
vintage sequins is the result of years of collecting and
preserving materials, which she has translated into
contemporary jewelry. Wilson designs and hand produces
knitwear for her ONE OF collection.
1402 Fifth St., Berkeley, CA 94710; 510.528.7736;
www.shibumigallery.com.
CONNECTICUT
THE YALE ARCHEOLOGY BUILDING in New Haven now
displays the remounted Bead Timeline of the former Bead
Museum, Washington, D.C. It was a collaboration between the
Bead Society of Greater Washington and the Peabody Museum
at Yale University.
51 Hillhouse Av., New Haven, CT 06520; 203.432.3700.
DELAWARE
THE WINTERTHUR MUSEUM, GARDEN AND LIBRARY
presents “Costumes of Downton Abbey” from March 1, 2014
through January 4, 2015. This exhibition compares and
contrasts the fictional British world of Downton Abbey with
the real-life American counterpart Winterthur in the first half
THE NORTON MUSEUM OF ART features “David Webb: Society’s Jeweler” through April 13, 2014. This is the first
retrospective of famed American jewelry designer David Webb, whose creations are linked to the heady and freewheeling spirit of the 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition brings together some eighty examples of Webb jewelry:
necklaces, rings and other pieces in gold, jade, coral, enamel, and precious stones. The exhibit features preparatory
drawings and special displays; in addition, artworks, photographs, publications, and advertisements also place Webb
within the visual culture of the 1960s. Shown are “Coral Seahorse” brooch, “Fantasy Object,” a necklace sketch, and
”Heraldic Maltese Cross” coral brooch.
1451 South Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401; 561.832.5196; www.norton.org.
25 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
NORTON MUSEUM OF ART
THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART
THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART hosts “Patrick Kelly: Runway
of Love” from April 27 through November 30, 2014. The exhibit is
a retrospective showcasing some eighty ensembles that were
recently presented to the museum as a promised gift by Kelly’s
business and life partner, Bjorn Guil Amelan, and Bill T. Jones.
Kelly’s designs will be complemented by selections from the
artist’s significant collection of black memorabilia, videos of his
fashion shows and photographs by renowned artists. His aesthetic
developed out of his African American and Southern roots, his
knowledge of fashion and art history, and from the club and gay
cultural scenes in New York and Paris. Kelly’s work pushed racial
and cultural boundaries with “golliwog” logos, “Aunt Jemima”
bandana dresses and ubiquitous black baby-doll brooches.
Shown are a woman’s ensemble of red wool knit and faux pearls
and one of black wool knit and rhinestones.
26th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania 19130; 215.763.8100; www.philamuseum.org.
of the twentieth century. Forty costumes and accessories worn
upstairs and downstairs on the period drama television series
will be displayed in Winterthur’s galleries. The costumes are
lent by Cosprop, one of the world’s leading costumers for
film, television and theater.
5105 Kennett Pike, Wilmington, DE 19735; 800.448.3883;
www.winterthur.org.
FLORIDA
THE INDIANAPOLIS MUSEUM OF ART presents “Majestic
African Textiles” through March 2, 2014 at the Gerald and Dorit
Paul Galleries. The new exhibition presents an array of royal
and prestige cloths, masking and ritual garments, and beaded
and embellished objects. Featuring more than sixty pieces
drawn from the museum’s permanent collection and
augmented with a few major loans, the show highlights a
significant and diverse group of richly patterned and elaborately
decorated textiles from North and sub-Saharan Africa.
GALLERY FIVE features hand-dyed shirts by Kay Chapman,
shibori jackets by Doshi, necklaces by Teresa Goodall, as
well as Keith Lewis’s silver, niobium and recycled materials
earrings. Jon and Tracy Haaland are also displaying leather
bags and purses.
4000 Michigan Rd., Indianapolis, IN 46208; 317.923.1331;
www.imamuseum.org.
140 Bridge Rd., Tequesta, FL 33469; 561.747.5555;
www.gallery5.com.
THE TEXTILE AND CLOTHING MUSEUM AT IOWA
STATE UNIVERSITY hosts “UNIFORMITY: Passions.
Perceptions. Purposes.” through April 12, 2014. The exhibition
explores why people wear uniforms, from organizations such
as the U.S. Army to social conventions like wedding attire.
GEORGIA
26 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
INDIANA
THE HIGH MUSEUM OF ART hosts “Bangles to Benches:
Contemporary Jewelry and Design” through June 8, 2014.
Ranging from mass-produced to one-of-a-kind works and
from handcrafted to digitally fabricated pieces, this exhibition
focuses on the scale, range and creative dexterity found in
many contemporary designers’ repertoires. Jewelry is paired
with other design objects—from chairs to climbing walls—
created by the same designers. This exhibition celebrates the
accomplishments of key designers currently in the High’s
permanent collection.
1280 Peachtree St., N.E., Atlanta, GA 30309; 404.733.4400;
www.high.org.
IOWA
1015 Morrill Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011;
www.aeshm.hs.iastate.edu/tc-museum.
MASSACHUSETTS
THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON hosts “Think Pink”
through May 26, 2014. The exhibition explores the history
and changing meanings of the color as its popularity ebbed
and flowed in fashion and visual culture from the eighteenth
century to the present day. An interdisciplinary show drawing
from across the museum’s collections, the exhibit juxtaposes
clothing, accessories, graphic illustrations, jewelry, and
paintings to shed light on changes in style; the evolution of pink for girls, blue for
boys; and advances in color technology.
Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115; 617.267.9300;
www.mfa.org.
NEW MEXICO
THE MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS AND CULTURE presents “Turquoise,
Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning” from April 13, 2014 through March
2016. The exhibit highlights the museum’s extensive collection of Southwestern
turquoise jewelry and presents all aspects of the stone, from geology, mining and
history, to questions of authenticity and value. Hundreds of necklaces, bracelets,
belts, rings, earrings, silver boxes, and other objects illustrate how the stone was
used and its deep significance to the people of the region.
NEW YORK
THE CORNING MUSEUM features “René Lalique: Enchanted by Glass” from
May 17, 2014 through January 4, 2015. This exhibition will bring together glass,
jewelry, production molds, and design drawings by René Lalique (French, 18601945), dating from about 1893 to Lalique’s death in 1945. As a successful jeweler
Lalique experimented with glass in his designs, which eventually led to a career
in which he fully embraced the material. His aesthetic choices in his designs
informed the styles of Art Nouveau and Art Deco in France, and the objects he
created have become iconic reflections of these periods.
One Museum Way, Corning, NY 14830; 800.7332.6845; www.cmog.org.
THE MUSEUM AT THE FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY features
“Elegance in an Age of Crisis: Fashions of the 1930s” from February 7 through
April 19, 2014. Despite its dire financial and political environment, the 1930s was
a period of stylistic achievement and technical innovation in design. In contrast to
the preceding Edwardian era—in which stiff, structured clothes dominated high
fashion—1930s garments were softer, minimally ornamented, elegantly
proportioned, and reflected the streamlined art moderne aesthetic. The exhibition
reveals the transformation that took place in women and men’s fashion.
Seventh Ave. at 27th St., New York, NY 10001; 212.217.4558; www.fitnyc.edu/3662.asp.
THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN presents “Fashion Jewelry: The
Collection of Barbara Berger” through April 20, 2014. Featuring over four hundred
fifty pieces of fashion jewelry by designers such as Miriam Haskell, Marcel
Boucher, Balenciaga, Kenneth Jay Lane, and Gripoix, this exhibition displays
necklaces, bracelets and earrings, many of them one-of-a-kind.
2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019; 212.299.7777; www.madmuseum.org.
NORTH CAROLINA
THE MINT MUSEUM hosts “Allure Of Flowers: Botanical Motifs In Craft,
Design, & Fashion” at its uptown location from March 1 through August 10, 2014.
Floral patterns have appeared in decorative arts since ancient times. Inspired by
the forms, colors and textures of the botanical world, artists from across the globe
have copied and interpreted individual flowers, bouquets and gardens in glass,
ceramic, textile, and jewelry design. The exhibition features a survey of works from
the mid-nineteenth century to today that illustrate the evolution of floral
ornament in modern and contemporary applied art.
Levine Center for the Arts, 500 South Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28202;
704.337.2000; www.mintmuseum.org.
IN MEMORIAM
JOSEPH GATTO, 78, innovative jeweler
and beloved art teacher, was slain
November 14, 2013 in his Silver Lake
home in Los Angeles. An intruder shot
Gatto and ransacked his home, in a
still unsolved case. Gatto helped
found the LA County High School for
the Arts and was Dean of the Visual
Arts Department until his retirement.
He also taught at Otis Parsons and the
Art Center College of Design. Author
of many books, his Exploring Visual
Design is in its fourth edition. From the
outpouring of praise from his students,
it is readily apparent why he was so
often honored for his teaching.
I knew him since the 1970s, as we
shared an interest in antiquities and
jewelry. I was always amazed at his
innovative ways of incorporating
artifacts and antiquities into his unique
jewelry, especially his rings and
bracelets. Ornament featured Joe in a
2010 article (Vol. 33, No. 4) and in the
next issue, I wrote about the hammers
Joe made and used in fabricating his
jewelry for more than four decades
(Vol. 33, No. 5). He was a regular
exhibitor in craft shows, especially the
Pasadena Bead and Design Show,
where I regularly visited his booth, and
about two weeks before his death
talked with him at the Contemporary
Craft Show in Pasadena.
I will miss you greatly, Joe.
Robert K. Liu
27 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
710 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe, NM 87505; 505.476.1250; www.indianartsandculture.org.
OHIO
THE CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM presents “From the Village to Vogue: The
Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith” from February 22 through May 18, 2014.
Organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art, this exhibition features twenty-four
pieces of silver and gold jewelry created by African American artist, Art Smith, as
well as select pieces by his contemporaries. Inspired by surrealism, biomorphism
and primitivism, Smith was one of the leading modernist jewelers of the midtwentieth century. The presentation is enriched by archival materials from the
artist’s estate, including sketches, tools and model photographs. Smith was an active
supporter of black and gay civil rights, an avid jazz enthusiast and a supporter of
early black modern dance groups.
953 Eden Park Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45202; 877.472.4226; www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org.
Courtney Lipson
STONINGTON GALLERY
STONINGTON GALLERY presents
“Thinking of Raven” from February
6 – 28, 2014. Works in media as
varied as glass, prints, jewelry,
wood, and metal sculpture will
explore lesser-known sides of this
character who is central in many
myths from far and wide along
the Pacific Northwest Coast.
There will be specimens such
as Courtney Lipson’s “Raven
Feather” necklace of black
and white biwa stick pearls
laid out as raven’s feathers—
seamlessly transversing between
the two shades to demonstrate
Raven’s moral ambiguity. Playing
upon a similar concept, Joan
Tenenbaum’s “Raven In Flight The Seen and Unseen” utilizes one
material, silver, and etches it to
bring forth raven’s form as a series
of caricatures.
125 South Jackson Street, Seattle,
Washington 98104; 206.405.4040;
www.stoningtongallery.com.
28 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Joan Tenenbaum
THE KENT STATE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM unveils “Shifting Paradigms: Fashion
+ Technology,” a new exhibit showing through August 31, 2014. The exhibition
addresses pioneering applications of technology that will have a transformative effect
on future artistic expression, image and clothing. The exhibition is divided into four
categories: Generative Technology Design, Democracy of Preference/Subversion
of Traditional Production, DIY, Technology, and Expression. These four categories
illustrate how designers are creatively addressing technology in a wide variety of
forms to convey changing twenty-first century culture.
East Main Street and South Lincoln St., Kent, OH 44242; 330.672.3450;
www.kent.edu/museum.
TEXAS
THE HOUSTON CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT presents “Cyan
Silhouettes: Works By Anna Mavromatis & Thea Clark” through March 30, 2014.
Thea Clark utilizes cyanotype on silk, as well as plastic and alternative materials to
make her jewelry. Anna Mavromatis creates mixed media incorporating ancient and
modern printmaking and paper staining techniques.
4848 Main St., Houston, TX 77002; 713.529.4848; www.crafthouston.org.
THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON hosts “Arts of Islamic Lands: Selections
from The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait” through August 31, 2014. Among the
highlights showcased in this display are Mughal jewelry, illuminated manuscripts,
ceramics, and decorated ceiling panels. More than sixty examples from the eighth to
eighteenth centuries are on view, made in the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, the
Middle East, and Central Asia.
1001 Bissonnet, Houston, TX 77005; 713.639.7300; www.mfah.org.
WISCONSIN
THE MCCLUNG MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND CULTURE presents
“Brightly Beaded: North American Indian Glass Beadwork” through June 2014. Of the
many things American Indians acquired through trade, few items held greater value
than glass beads, and female artists throughout much of Native North America
quickly mastered the craft of beadworking. This exhibition presents exemplary
selections of beadwork, primarily from four culture areas—Plains, Great Lakes,
Subarctic, and Northeast—and explores the techniques, as well as their functional and
cultural significance.
1327 Circle Park Dr., Knoxville, TN 37996, 865.974.2144; mcclungmuseum.utk.edu.
BELGIUM
MODEMUSEUM PROVINCE OF ANTWERP presents “50 Years Antwerp Fashion
Department” through February 16, 2014. The exhibition is one of the many projects
of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp celebrating its
three hundred fiftieth anniversary. The exhibition highlights
various aspects of Antwerp fashion education during the first
fifty years of its existence: the department’s specific
curriculum and its education and evaluation methods, the
importance of graphic design in fashion, the various
generations of students and their careers, the friendship and
emergence of the ‘Antwerp Six’ (Ann Demeulemeester, Dries
Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck, Marina
Yee, Dirk Bikkembergs) and Martin Margiela, and the
graduation projects of some of the most noteworthy alumni.
Nationalestraat 28, Antwerp 2000, Belgium; 32.3.470.2770;
www.momu.be/en.
CANADA
THE TEXTILE MUSEUM OF CANADA hosts “From Geisha to
Diva: The Kimonos of Ichimaru” through April 11, 2014. The
life of Ichimaru (1906-1997), one of the most famous geishas of
the twentieth century due to her exceptional singing voice, is
told through this collection of her kimonos and other personal
effects. In the 1930s, Ichimaru left geishahood to pursue an
illustrious career as a full-time recording artist, but even as a
diva, she continued to perform in full geisha regalia. Ichimaru’s
handcrafted kimonos reveal her style and taste over several
decades, offering a glimpse into the life and times of an icon of
Japanese popular culture.
55 Centre Ave., Toronto, ON M5G 2H5, Canada; 416.599.5321;
www.textilemuseum.ca.
FINLAND
THE DESIGN MUSEUM features the work of Henrik Vibskov
through May 11, 2014. Originally from the Danish countryside,
Henrik Vibskov (1972) graduated from Central Saint Martins in
London in 2001. Since then, he has designed over twenty
collections to become an important Nordic fashion designer on
an international scale. Although Vibskov creates fashions for
both men and women, he also designs collections of fashionable
accessories in a playful spirit. Vibskov is also known for his
installations in the visual arts, which often serve as the sets of
fashions shows.
Korkeavuorenkatu 23, Helsinki, Finland, 00130; 35.89.622.0540;
www.designmuseum.fi.
FRANCE
MUSÉE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS presents “In The Line Of
Sight: Contemporary Jewellery In France” through March 2,
2014. This exhibition is also a tour of the museum’s
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM presents “Jewels by JAR” through March 9, 2014. This exhibition features more than four
hundred works by the twentieth-century jewelry designer, Joel A. Rosenthal, who works in Paris under the name JAR.
Born in New York and educated at Harvard, Rosenthal moved to Paris soon after his graduation in 1966 and began
to experiment with jewelrymaking. JAR opened in 1978 on the Place Vendôme. The exhibition is the first devoted to a
contemporary artist of gems at the Metropolitan Museum and features a selection of JAR’s finest pieces. He is known
for his pavé technique—the setting of small stones so close together that they appear as a continuous surface of
jewels—and uses subtle gradations of color to create a painterly effect. The exhibition is the first retrospective of his
work in America; the only other major exhibition of Rosenthal’s work was held in 2002 at Somerset House in London.
Shown are “Tulip” brooch, “Multicolored Handkerchief” earrings and “Zebra” brooch.
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10028; 212.535.7710; www.metmuseum.org.
29 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of Art
PASADENA BEAD AND DESIGN SHOW
THE PASADENA BEAD AND DESIGN SHOW takes place
each January and July at the Hilton Pasadena. Over three
hundred exhibitors make it the largest show of its kind,
offering handmade merchandise. The product list includes
lampwork beads, handcrafted artistic polymer and silver
clay beads, vintage and antique beads, artisan resources,
components, and hard-to-find boutique arts such as
handwoven textiles. The show typically hosts one hundred
fifty hands-on workshops. These classes offer instruction in
beadmaking, wire, jewelry creation, chainmaille, metal
work, glass, polymer clay, riveting, soldering, hatmaking,
and clothing design. Shown are a ring and earrings by
Mountain Robbins Art Studio and beads by Klew Gallery.
www.pasadenabeadanddesignshow.com.
permanent collections, where seventy jewelers and silversmiths
have been invited to show their most recent creations
alongside Medieval/Renaissance, Seventeenth/Eighteenth
Century, Nineteenth Century, Art Nouveau/Art Deco,
Modern and Contemporary works. This panorama of
contemporary French creation shows how jewelry and its role
are changing today, with formal experimentation,
“questioning” of the contemporary body and identification of
new social behaviors.
107 Rue de Rivoli, Paris 75001, France; 33.0.1.4455.5750;
www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/english-439.
GERMANY
THE SCHMUCK MUSEUM IN PFORZHEIM features
“Jewellery by Bettina Speckner and Daniel Spoerri” from
February 8 through April 27, 2014. Speckner’s jewelry uses
photographs as the centerpieces for brooches and other
adornment. Her pieces will be displayed with the jewelry and
small sculptures created by the >Eat Art< artist Daniel Spoerri.
30 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Jahnstrasse 42, Pforzheim d-75173,
49.0.7231.39.21.26; www.schmuckmuseum.de.
Germany;
THE RAUTENSTRAUCH-JOEST-MUSEUM presents “Made
In Oceania: Tapa – Art And Social Landscapes” through April
27, 2014. Largely unknown in the West, Tapa—a unique
fabric made from the inner bark of trees—is the material
expression of the Pacific Islands’ cultural identity. This
important new exhibition at the museum gathers a selection
of two hundred fifty pieces from across the Pacific, ranging
from the Cook collection (eighteenth century) to works by
renowned contemporary Polynesian and Melanesian artists.
Cäcilienstraße 29-33, Cologne 50667, Germany; 49.221.33694;
www.museenkoeln.de/rautenstrauch-joest-museum.
GREAT BRITAIN
THE SOMERSET HOUSE holds the exhibition “Isabella Blow:
Fashion Galore!” through March 2, 2014. The exhibit celebrates
the life and wardrobe of the late British patron of fashion and
art. The exhibition showcases over a hundred pieces from
her collection, one of the most important private collections
of late twentieth century/early twenty-first century British
fashion design, now owned by Daphne Guinness. This includes
garments from the many designer talents she discovered and
launched, such as Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy, Hussein
Chalayan and Julien Macdonald amongst others.
South Building, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA,
United Kingdom; 44.20.7845.4600; www.somersethouse.org.uk.
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM hosts “Club to
Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s” through February 16,
2014. The more than eighty-five outfits showcase the bold and
exciting new looks by the most experimental young designers
of the decade, including Betty Jackson, Katharine Hamnett,
Wendy Dagworthy, and John Galliano. The exhibit traces the
emerging theatricality in British fashion as the capital’s club
scene influenced a new generation of designers.
Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL, United Kingdom;
44.20.7942.2000; www.vam.ac.uk.
announcements & events
CALIFORNIA
THE AMERICAN CRAFT COUNCIL hosts its 2014 Baltimore
Retail and Wholesale show from February 21 – 23 and
February 19 – 20, respectively. The retail show has a number
of the ACC’s specialty sections and events, such as the Local
and Greencraft categories, featuring work from local artists
and ecologically sustainable craftwork.
www.craftcouncil.org/shows/2014.
THE CONTEMPORARY CRAFTS MARKET presents its
twenty-ninth season at its new location at the Pasadena
Convention Center from June 20 – 22, 2014. All the work in
the show is made in the United States by the participating
artists. View and purchase handmade craft by skilled artisans
from across the United States.
www.contemporarycraftsmarket.com.
of the Naples Art Association is to promote and advance
education, interest and participation in the contemporary
visual arts.
www.naplesart.org.
GEORGIA
THE SOUTHERN JEWELRY TRAVELERS ASSOCIATION
features the Atlanta Jewelry Show from March 8 – 10, 2014.
The wholesale market is providing several new additions to the
show, including Handcrafted Studio, which brings together
emerging and established jewelry designers, all produced by
hand, as well as Antique Alley, showcasing a number of
antique and estate jewelry resources.
www.atlantajewelryshow.com.
MARYLAND
FLORIDA
THE NAPLES ART ASSOCIATION hosts the Naples National
Art Festival from February 22 – 23, 2014. A competitive, juried
event, this fine art and craft festival showcases the talents of
more than two hundred sixty artists in the traditional craft
categories, as well as painting and photography. The festival is
held in Cambier Park and along 8th Street South. The mission
CABIN FEVER CLAY FEST 2014 in Laurel, Maryland features
seventeen instructors, running from February 12 to 19;
included are many well-known polymer artists. Robert K. Liu,
Ornament Coeditor, will present a two-day workshop on
making jewelry with black bamboo.
www.kathrynottman.com.
Continued on page 74.
FACÈRÉ JEWELRY ART GALLERY presents “Louder than Words” from February 5 through March 5, 2014. The
exhibit explores contrasts and communions between the visual language of jewelry art with the literary
language of the printed page. Pieces, like David LaPlantz’s “EVOL/Reflection/LOVE, Action that Reflects – Love
is a Call to Action” brooch, include words within the piece to communicate a message. In LaPlantz’s case,
the word love is reflected, like across a mirror, and punctuated by a heart in the middle of the O as symbolism
combined with ornamentation. The work in this exhibition takes words, either as literal inclusion, or as symbolic
representation, to express that what is seen can be more powerful than what is read. Also shown on left and
right are “ORA, LEGE, LEGE, LEGE, RELEGE, LABORA ET INVENIES” by Carolyn Tillie and “6/4” by Cynthia Toops.
1420 Fifth Avenue, Suite 108, Seattle, Washington 98101; 206.624.6768; www.facerejewelryart.com.
31 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
FACÈRÉ JEWELRY ART
GALLERY
o
L
e
b
n
e
e
r
K
The Exquisite Lightness of Being
Carolyn L. E. Benesh retrospective
A
BROOCH of fourteen karat gold and South Sea pearl; 7 x 6.4 centimeters, 1993.
Photographs of jewelry by Tom Van Eynde except where noted. Photograph of
Loeber and Look by Carolyn L. E. Benesh at the Smithsonian Craft Show, 2011.
33 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
crumpled sheet of fourteen karat gold, as
if it were a worthless piece of paper about
to be thrown into a trash bin, is set at the
bottom of its almost brutal metallic surface with one
very beautiful South Sea pearlÑa survivor from its
emergence from a home within the seas depths, to be
cast into the lap of markets eager to use it for profit.
Ungainly in some strange way, this pearl reorients
the gold above it, marking a contrapuntal movement
between surface and texture, between the realities of life
with its coexistence of harshness and ineffable grace.
KEN LOEBER AND DONA LOOK
A breathtakingly elegant branch of Alaskan white
coral (no human could replicate it?) has three eighteen karat gold leaf forms, so very carefully
placed on the once living structure that it is almost painful to behold the attachment. The
branch, a piece of natureÕs creation, outshines the three leaves, but at the same time could not
really be complete without them, at least in this particular artistic exercise. Another, a swirl of
repeating circles in sterling silver and eighteen karat gold seemingly move before the eye in a
celebratory dance, homage to the infinite unknowedness of the universe.
With a background in sculpture, Ken Loeber was trained and received both his Bachelor of
Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1970 and 1978.
Over the years he became drawn more to jewelrymaking and is largely self-taught. His mother
passed on her jewelry equipment and he made his first pin at sixteen. Born in 1948, in 2002,
at the age of fifty-four and after building a noted professional career in the contemporary craft
movement, Loeber had a severe stroke which impaired his ability to speak and as well, lost the
use of his right hand and arm. He is left-handed, but nevertheless had to laboriously reeducate
himself in working methods that would now depend on one hand and the strength of one arm.
A recent exhibition, ÒCollection Focus: Ken Loeber,Ó which WisconsinÕs Racine Art Museum
sponsors for those works of a single artist that have been donated or promised to its collection,
demonstrates the efficacy of restraint as one artistÕs primary force when creating. Over thirty
pieces that range over his long career and show the development of his artistry provide a
compelling study in the power and beauty to be found in the virtues of harmony and balance,
and what can be achieved with a few, not many, elements. Certainly, not always a requirement,
34 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
ROSE PIN of sterling silver and eighteen karat gold; 5.4 x 5.6 centimeters, 2006. Photograph by Ralph Gabriner. BROOCH
of eighteen karat gold and Alaskan white coral; 8.1 x 5.1 centimeters, 1998.
this deliberative conscious act of limitation is found in many enduring works of art, as
it does so well with LoeberÕs.
Carol Sauvion, Executive Director and creator of the PBS series Craft in America
is a close friend of Ken Loeber and Dona Look, his wife and partner. She has known
them from the 1980s when they began to show in Freehand, SauvionÕs craft gallery
in Los Angeles. Regardful of their attachment as friends, I asked Sauvion to make a
statement in tribute to the Racine Art Museum exhibition. ÒKen Loeber and Dona
Look are special artists. Since they met in high school, they have been together,
making, thinking about and discussing their work, Ken as a master metalsmith
and jeweler and Dona as one of AmericaÕs finest and most skilled basketweavers.
Both artists have received honors bestowed on only the finest practitioners in their
respective fields. Their partnership has included collaboration on the Loeber/Look line
of production jewelry as well as a communion of spirit that supports and enhances
the work they produce alone. They live in a very rural area of northern Wisconsin
surrounded by birch forests and enriched by the beautiful vertical log cabin that Ken
lovingly restored for them, their vegetable garden and a long pool in which to enjoy
the fleeting warmth of the summer months.
ÒLife for Ken and Dona and their son Reid in a completely artistic environment
was perfect until the day, when Ken suffered a massive stroke in the middle of the
night and Reid kept him awake and alive while Dona summoned help. That event
changed Ken, Dona and ReidÕs life immeasurably. The aftermath of the stroke was
difficult and a true artistic challenge for Ken, Dona and Reid. Almost as proof of the
power of art to heal, Ken Loeber is a stronger, more expressive, deeper talent than ever
he has been. Dona LookÕs baskets are more refined, singular, personal, complex, and
exquisite. Reid Look-Loeber follows in his parents footsteps armed with a knowledge
of jewelry production and a thirst for travel and the arts.
ÒWhen Craft in America traveled to northern Wisconsin in 2006 to film Ken and
Dona, Ken was struggling with ways to continue to make his jewelry. His brother-inlaw engineered a special vice for him that allowed him to work with only one hand.
A master metalsmith and solderer, Ken was exploring his creativity within his new
physical parameters. I remember watching him painstakingly cutting out dozens
of small squares of delicate, matte silver rectangles and soldering them into an oval
shape to be made into a brooch. I asked about the rectangles. Ken said, ‘Those are my
thoughts.’ The difficulty in expressing his ideas, rather than stopping him, presented
a challenge and an opportunity. He found new ways of self-expression, which is
perhaps the obligation of an artist. And Dona was there, demanding that Ken decide
his future and supporting him in his decision to continue as an artist. This redoubled
Dona’s commitment to her work.
“Now Ken has been honored at the Racine Art Museum in his home state of
Wisconsin, where his professional life is the subject of a retrospective. His work
is strong, creative, innovative. His art and the art of Dona Look are essential
contributions to American craft and American art. Art can save lives after all.”
In practicing one’s craft, Loeber is an exemplar of the requirement that
dedication and persistence must drive the process. The heart of his work is centered
in his due diligence to the act of making, that is of constructing something from
nothing, of following the concrete steps necessary to advance his work. He has
chosen not to render his pieces with too many possibilities or different elements,
so there is a kind of Shaker severity to them. It is a reductive accomplishment in the
best sense of the current terminology. Nonetheless, they are beautifully complete
and have a serenity that casts a spell, somehow otherworldly and esoteric in their
simplicity and essential nature.
Subtle, sensitive, Ken Loeber’s jewelry has been so extraordinarily resonant in
just these ways over the many decades he has been working. “The moment,” author
Henry Miller wrote, “one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it
becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” Blessed
with an exacting sense of observation, with the inspiration of nature as the core for
creating, it has been a lodestar for Loeber over the many decades of his professional
career and has helped him personally navigate through life’s troubled waters.
35 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
BROOCH of sterling silver, fourteen karat gold, coral, and shell; 5.1 x 7.3 centimeters, 1986. WHITE ROUGE PIN of eighteen
karat gold and pearl; 4.4 x 1.4 centimeters, 2012. Photograph by Ralph Gabriner.
36 ORNAMENT 36.3.2013
Newspaper Fashion
Ashley Callahan
Opposite page: VINTAGE POSTCARD depicting a young woman
wearing a newspaper dress made of The Daily Mirror (England), ca.
1915. Collection of David Simkin of Sussex PhotoHistory. VINTAGE
POSTCARD depicting a boy wearing a newspaper suit made of The
Nelson Leader (Pendle, East Lancashire, England), ca. 1915. Collection
of David Simkin of Sussex PhotoHistory.
gown made of silk panels printed with the front pages of
several local newspapers and trimmed in gold braid to a
ball in 1866. The dress featured a bodice (now lost), sash
and full skirt with a crinoline and train, preserved in the
collection of the State Library of Victoria. Butters also
wore a headdress proclaiming “Liberty of the press,” and
carried a staff topped with a miniature functioning
printing press.5 In 1876 Miss Ida Romain wore a
costume to a fancy dress ball in Toronto that she and a
seamstress crafted by sewing newspaper to stiff buckram,
with a newspaper bouquet to match. A local newspaper
described her outfit as “a complete dress and overskirt
with panniers made of issues of the city press with the
names of the three daily papers published in the city
conspicuous on the front of the overskirt,” adding that
her dance partners “could easily read the news of the day
while enjoying the whirlings of the gallopade.”6 A
photograph in the collection of the Port Arthur Public
Library in Texas from 1897 portrays a young woman
named Ruby Dee Austin wearing a dress made of layers
of vertical panels with the Port Arthur Herald’s masthead
and a matching bonnet.
The newspaper costume phenomenon became
popular enough to be codified as its own party theme by
the 1910s. Mrs. Herbert B. Linscott in The Social Hour
37 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
O
n March 7, 1929, a modern young woman in
northwest Georgia named Martha Lin Manly
took a piece of plain sateen to the printing press
of the Dalton Citizen newspaper, where she worked as
society editor. She had the day’s news printed on the
fabric, which she then fashioned into a stylish shift to
wear to an upcoming masquerade ball hosted by the
Dalton Junior Chamber of Commerce. Costumes
ranged from a Gay Nineties gown to an aviatrix outfit
to Peter Pan to a representation of bubbles. Manly’s
attractive and timely costume stood out, though,
and earned her first prize and the presentation of “a
beautiful rhinestone bracelet.”1
The fashion for newspaper garments has repeatedly
captivated popular interest. The unique sartorial
expressions, whether assembled of actual newspapers or
of fabric printed with news pages, inevitably raise issues
of identity and politics. Many costumes reflect the
interests of the wearer or the marketing ambitions of the
publisher, expressed through the intentional selection
and arrangement of printed text. Though few of these
ephemeral creations survive, the ones that do and the
ones that are documented in vintage photographs attest
to the novelty and graphic power of the combination of
newspapers and clothing.
Newspaper costumes have been worn by women,
men and children for nearly two hundred years. Daily
newspapers developed in the eighteenth century and
became increasingly common during the nineteenth
century.2 The growing prevalence of printed news
generated public familiarity with the format and
provided ample raw material for newspaper costumes.
Such outfits are documented as part of French musichall revues as early as 1831 when Mademoiselle Déjazet
appeared as the character “La Politique” in a dress
pasted with newspapers, and became staple costumes for
such venues by the end of the nineteenth century.3
The novelty of the material appealed to Victorians
who cut and folded newspaper into elaborate ruffles and
fringes, often with accessories such as hats and fans.
Newspaper costumes appeared regularly at fancy dress
and masquerade balls, and are depicted in popular
prints illustrating collections of favorite costumes.4
Matilda Butters, wife of a prominent politician and
businessman in Melbourne, Australia, wore an elaborate
38 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
“all wrapped up in newspaper work”
(1917) suggests how hostesses could throw newspaper
parties by decorating their tables with miniature
telegraph poles, offering menus listing food by its
advertising slogans, and organizing games in which
couples could be paired through custom “want ads” or
attendees could edit their own
paper. She suggests guests attend
such parties wearing “a newspaper
dunce cap and long flowing cape; a
complete robe fashioned of
newspapers, belted in at the waist; a
large brimmed hat of several
thicknesses of newspapers; long
flowing skirts, plaited ones, sailor
collars, and puffed sleeves, all of
newspaper.” 7 For some parties
attendees created their newspaper
attire as part of the festivities, often
with humorous restraints such as
the men being required to make the
costumes on their dates, without the
women giving “so much as a hint to
their awkward dressmakers.”8
Newspaper costumes and parties
generally were associated with
youth. Even children participated in
the recurring fad, and the Sun and
New York Herald described a
costume, worn to a fancy masquerade ball in 1920 by
young Miss Sarita Mejia, as having a “pleated underskirt
of the general news, pleated overskirt, cut pointed, with
front piece of the comic page and side of the magazine
section.”9 The Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle
reported on a girls’ newspaper fashion parade in 1922 in
which the winner, a seven-year-old named Albersina
Schieber, wore a “work of extreme art” that was
“carefully cuffled, scalloped and sewed from the colored
pages of a comic sheet.”10
Often newspaper costumes served as promotional
tools, including a dress, ca. 1893, in the collection of the
Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
made of cotton with newspaper advertisements glued on
and oversized text on patches appliquéd along the hem
reading “SUBSCRIBE FOR THE ECHO,” a newspaper
from Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania.11 In 1910 a young
woman at a benefit fair at the Richmond County fair
grounds in Dongan Hills on Staten Island dressed “in a
frock made from ‘the family newspaper of Staten
Island’” and walked around asking attendees to buy one.
According to the New York Sun, “a
man who spied his picture on the
newspaper dress approached her
and gently poking the half tone
cut that covered a section of her
side exclaimed, ‘Why, that’s me!’ ”12
Mrs. John F. Deegan, who attended
a fancy dress ball in 1927 wearing a
dress printed with pages of the
Pelham (NY) Sun distributed
“miniature copies of The Sun which
were prized as souvenirs and were
specially printed for the occasion.”13
In 1902 another society editor,
Minnie Biglin of Wabaunsee
County, Kansas, had pages of the
Alta Vista Journal, her employer,
printed on muslin that she then
made into a dress to wear to a
costume ball hosted by the paper.
She attended the event with her
brother, Earl Biglin, who dressed as
a printer’s devil, a term for a
printer’s apprentice. Like Martha Lin Manly, Biglin won
a prize for her costume, which, along with a photograph
of the siblings, is now in the collection of the Kansas
State Historical Society.14
Though more modest than Manly’s later flapperstyle dress, Biglin’s long-sleeve dress with a sailor collar
also proclaims her modernity. Literally wearing their
work proclaimed their status as working women, and
donning garments with dates printed on them illustrated
their contemporary interests. Manly, a college-educated
woman who advocated for equal pay for women, even
placed the society page section heading with her name
daringly in the front center, just below the dropped
waist; the newspaper’s mast head is more modestly
arranged across the top of the dress.15 That both women,
and others like them, chose to make their costumes of
MINNIE AND EARL BIGLIN in costumes, 1902, Kansas State
Historical Society. Opposite page: PAPER MINIDRESS, ca. 1967,
courtesy of 1919vintage.
Hayward, California, sponsored a newspaper dress
contest in 1968 and received entries ranging from
“comic-strip minis” to “headlined tent dresses,” and
awarded first prize to a woman who spent thirty-six
hours sewing one hundred twenty-five front pages of the
newspaper’s October 1, 1967 issue of its weekly
magazine into a dress.20 The following year that
newspaper held another newspaper dress contest and
awarded titles for the best use of each section of the
newspaper, including Miss TV Week, Miss Daily Review
Shopper, and Miss Family Weekly.21 Newspaper parties
continue to be promoted as entertaining and wholesome
youth group activities in the twenty-first century.
Newspapers as attire garnered extensive media
attention with a couture fashion collection by John
Galliano for Christian Dior in 2000. His controversial
creations, in a style termed “hobo chic” and inspired by
homeless Parisians, featured surprising elements
39 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
fabric rather than paper reflects a practical choice, as the
fabric was more durable, and demonstrates their
privileged access to the newspaper printing facilities. The
use of fabric also preserves a moment in the otherwise
transitory worlds of news and fashion by creating a more
durable base for the printed news and an outfit that will
be outdated quickly and thus not worn out.
The small text on newspaper costumes invites close
observation. The inclination to read the printed text
might inadvertently (or otherwise) lead the viewer’s eye
to an intimate examination of parts of the wearer’s body
not acceptable to ogle in other circumstances. The
slightly risqué nature of newspaper costumes was
commemorated in a popular limerick: There once was a
girl from St. Paul/Who wore a newspaper dress to a
ball,/But the dress caught on fire/And burned her entire/
Front page, sporting section, and all.
The popularity of newspaper dresses spiked in the
late 1960s with the introduction of the paper dress craze.
One popular paper dress, in the typical short, A-line
style, was printed with collaged newspaper clippings.16
Mrs. Gail Brown, secretary to the publisher of the Laural
(MS) Leader-Call, posed happily in one of these dresses
for a photograph in 1968, and the Houston Chronicle
offered dresses printed with its own headlines in 1967.17
Mary Good, writing for the Chicago Daily Herald,
reviewed a paper mini dress with a newspaper design in
1967, explaining that at first she was excited to be able to
quip that she was “all wrapped up in newspaper work” if
anyone asked her what she was doing (no one did) then
dismayed when she realized that the print was rubbing
off and she had a tattoo of Irv Kupcinet receiving the
“Man of the Year” award on her arm. Her main
concern, though, was that the news was “stale.” She
exclaimed, “Ann Landers plans ‘Vietnam Trip’ was
steamered across my chest!”18 Though not appreciated
by Good, the temporariness of the paper dresses was an
appropriate fit for the quickly changing headlines, as
neither lasted very long.
Costumes out of actual newspaper continued to be
popular later in the twentieth century, as well. A Cub
Scout pack in Clinton, New York, sponsored a
competition in 1968 in which father-son teams designed
newspaper dresses for mothers.19 The Daily Review in
40 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
including tin cups, frayed tulle, and tattered newspapers.
Galliano revisited the newspaper theme in Dior’s fall
2000 ready-to-wear collection, composing a custom
newspaper, The Christian Dior Daily, and printing it on
a variety of materials for clothing. One of the dresses, of
printed silk with an asymmetrical hemline, rocketed to
fame when Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica
Parker, wore it in season three of Sex and the City
(2000), and in the second Sex and the City film (2010).
Bradshaw, like Manly and Biglin, worked for a
newspaper, and the dress reflects both her profession
and, with the words “Christian Dior Daily” across her
waist, her status as a fashionista.
Galliano continued working with newspaper
imagery, even introducing newspaper t-shirts, pants,
and underwear. The “news” in his prints often includes
Galliano’s name and image, and turns wearers into live
advertisements, an approach used decades earlier, in the
mid-1930s, by Elsa Schiaparelli when she designed a
fabric printed with a collage of her press clippings.22
Many other contemporary designers also have used
newsprint in recent years, including Betsey Johnson
whose dress combines English and Chinese writing,
Anna Sui whose dress is black with white text, and
Nicolas Guesquière for Balenciaga who combined
newspapers and product packaging as influences.
Designers continue to work with actual newspapers to
create attire as well, encouraged both by the popularity
of DIY projects and recycling. Gary Harvey, for example,
created a dress using thirty copies of the Financial Times
in 2007, dramatically bringing attention to his interests
in recycling, up-cycling, and ethical sourcing in the
fashion industry. Season Six of Project Runway (2009)
even featured a challenge in which participants made
newspaper outfits.
Early costumes often embodied a straightforward
approach to newspapers, allowing wearers to represent
“the news” or a specific newspaper for entertainment or
advertisement. As creation of newspaper fashion
expanded from individuals making one-of-a-kind
outfits for themselves to designers producing printed
yardage and ready-to-wear clothing, the focus largely
shifted to promotion of brands and themes, losing the
immediacy of incorporating a recent newspaper but
gaining in volume and fashion credibility. Richard
Martin, when discussing the newspaper dress in the
collection of the Costume Institute, wrote that “the
annexation of text to dress gives it new context: editorial
PRESS DRESS worn by Mrs. Matilda Butters (1837-1878), 1866, silk and gold braid, Mrs. William Wilson Dobbs (Dressmaker). Collection of the State
Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Opposite page: MARTHA LIN MANLY (Hogshead, 1904-1992), newspaper dress, 1929, sateen
(probably a cotton and synthetic blend). Historic Clothing and Textile Collection; Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors; College
of Family & Consumer Sciences; University of Georgia; gift of Frank Hogshead and The Dalton Daily Citizen.
FOOTNOTES
1. ÒJaycee Masquerade Is Brilliant Social Affair,” Dalton (GA) Citizen, March 14,
1929.
2. Jonathan Walford, Ready to Tear: Paper Fashions of the 60s (Canada: Kickshaw
Productions, 2007), 4.
3. Jeffrey Weiss, The Popular Culture of Modern Art: Picasso, Duchamp, and
Avant-Gardism, c. 1909-17 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 18.
4. See for example, Fancy Dress Ball at the Brookwood Surrey Lunatic Asylum,
London Illustrated News, January 22, 1881.
5. ÒMrs. ButtersÕ Press Dress,” Treasures & Curios, State Library of Victoria
website, http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/treasures-curios/mrsbutters-press-dress.
6. Walford, 6-7.
7. Mrs. Herbert B. Linscott, The Social Hour, Volume 5 of Foundation Stones of
Success, ed. Edwin Markham (Chicago: Howard-Severance Company, 1917),
197-202.
8. ÒDelight Your Guests with New Party Stunts,” Lockport (NY) Union-Sun and
Journal, November 21, 1938.
9. ÒNewspaper Costume Wins a Prize,” Sun and New York Herald, September
19, 1920.
10. ÒFront Street Has Style of Its Own; Newspaper Dress in Vogue,” Rochester
(NY) Democrat and Chronicle, July 29, 1922.
11. Richard Martin, Wordrobe, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 1997), n.p. Available online in the Metropolitan Museum Publications
collection: http://cdm16028.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/
p15324coll10/id/62042.
12. ÒLawn and Water Festival,” New York Sun, May 22, 1910.
13. ÒWins First Prize at Fancy Dress Ball,” Pelham (NY) Sun, September 9, 1927.
14. Kansas Historical Society, ÒCool ThingsÑNewspaper Dress,” November
1997, modified March 2013, Kansapedia, Kansas Historical Society website,
http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/cool-things-newspaper-dress/10122.
15. Gertrude ÒTut” McFarland (niece of Martha Lin Manly Hogshead), telephone
conversation with author, August 2, 2013.
16. Walford, 26.
17. ÒDress Fits Her Job,” Laural (MS) Leader-Call, July 23, 1968, and J. R.
Gonzales, ÒAll the News ThatÕs Fit to Wear,” June 15, 2008, Bayou City
Blog, Houston Chronicle website, http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2008/06/all-the-news-thats-fit-to-wear/.
18. Mary Good, ÒWaste Basket Boutique, Who Wants a Paper Dolly?,” Chicago
Daily Herald, August 9, 1967.
19. ÒMills Pack 84 Gives Honors,” Clinton (NY) Courier, February 29, 1968.
20. ÒPaper Caper,” Albany (NY) Knickerbocker News, April 7, 1968.
21. ÒCover Close Up: Miss TV Week,” Bakersfield Californian, January 4, 1969.
22. Martin, n.p., and ÒNewsprint Fashion,” January 21, 2011, FIDM Museum
Blog, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles, California,
http://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2011/01/newsprint-fashion.html.
23. Martin, n.p.
24. Frank Hogshead (son of Martha Lin Manly Hogshead), telephone conversation
with author, May 31, 2013.
41 ORNAMENT 35.3.2012
becomes advertising; headlines become graphic art.”23
Throughout its history, newspaper fashion has been a
remarkable chronicler of its era, stylishly uniting current
headlines and hemlines.
Martha Lin Manly may have worn her dress again to
a newspaper press association meeting, but it quickly
was relegated to the back of the closet. The daughter of a
successful jailworks manufacturer, Manly maintained an
active social schedule throughout the Depression and
continued working as society editor until she married in
1939. After she died, her son found the petite dress and
stored it for about twenty years before donating it to the
Dalton Daily Citizen, which placed it in the Historic
Clothing and Textile Collection at the University of
Georgia.24
P at P ruitt
Prototype to Perfection
Diana F. Pardue
42 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
I
t starts with a sketch and then it is followed by
several more. One or two might be selected and
refined to make an item of jewelry, a vase, a unique
piece. This is a glimpse of the creative process of Pat
Pruitt. Although he learned traditional silverworking
techniques as a teenager, Pruitt’s later training in
mechanical engineering led him to understand the
properties of stainless steel and titanium, adapting
them first to body piercing jewelry and then to more
conventional jewelry forms. For several years, Pruitt has
created a line of bracelets, necklaces and other jewelry
items as well as one-of-a-kind belts, vases and other
distinctive objects like a set of spurs and a tribute dog
collar and chain for his beloved Mooch. His entries in
regional American Indian art fairs have garnered Pruitt
several awards but also the attention of Southwestern art
collectors. His jewelry line is unusual not only for the
materials he uses but also for his distinctive designs.
Pruitt’s path to jewelry design could be perceived
as partly traditional and nontraditional. He was
raised in Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico and is of
Pueblo, Chiricahua Apache and Caucasian heritage.
At the age of fifteen while recovering from a bike
accident, he was fortunate that silversmith Greg
Lewis allowed him to try his hand at metalworking.
Lewis, according to Pruitt, is one of those “unsung
heroes.” Lewis is a traditional silversmith who excels
at making everything by hand including many of his
appealing because they were less rigid than the
required coursework for mechanical engineering.
As a part of SMU’s curriculum for mechanical
engineering and through the co-op program, Pruitt
was hired during his sophomore year by Texas
Instruments (TI). He worked alongside George
Sabowski, a master machinist who had completed a
traditional European twenty-five-year apprenticeship
when he lived in Poland. Pruitt notes that TI was not
a teaching environment. Sabowski showed Pruitt the
basics of machine safety but left the young student to
work on his own. Here, Pruitt also learned to use a
mill and a lathe. At the time, one of the products
being made at TI was optical recognition devices for
computer chips. The microchips had to be precisely
soldered to a computer board. Pruitt’s division built
prototype machines to accomplish those tasks.
Precision is one of the characteristics that marks
Pruitt’s jewelry today.
His college expenses were covered through
scholarships, money earned as a residential assistant
and his work at Texas Instruments. But living in
Dallas and paying out-of-state tuition at a private
school was not inexpensive. During his freshman year
in 1991 he began to make body piercing jewelry. At
the time, this was a fairly open field with
MIDNIGHT RENDEZVOUS necklace of zirconium 702, stainless steel cable, rubber tubing; CNC machined, contour
ground, pulse arc welded, forced oxidization, sanded, 2013. ARTIST SKETCHES for Midnight Rendezvous. Photographs
courtesy of the artist, except where noted. Opposite page: SEXIEST MAN ALIVE (statement by wife, Maria Allison),
rings of 316L stainless steel; CNC machined, hand-finished, 2013. Photograph by Craig Smith, Heard Museum.
43 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
own tools. Pruitt learned by watching Lewis and by
emulating what he saw. When Pruitt was learning to
properly bend a bracelet, he tried making and
bending one hundred or more copper ones in order
to successfully grasp the technique. But if he could
not figure out something, he would ask Lewis who
was willing to show him what he needed to know.
That experience of trial and error would serve Pruitt
later when he developed machinery to shape stainless
steel bracelets or experimented with other techniques
to accomplish unusual surface finishes.
Perhaps one of his more interesting life paths
was Pruitt’s choice to attend Southern Methodist
University in Dallas. His older brother Dominic
attended SMU and the university offered an
appealing albeit highly competitive engineering
program. Freshman year was framed by traditional
classwork and subsequent years allowed students to
work and get paid in their fields of interest. But
college offered some other opportunities that would
affect Pruitt’s creative processes. Pruitt also chose to
take classes in studio art electives such as threedimensional design and sculpture. He found that
defending the artwork in class forced him not only to
analyze his creative works but also to successfully
articulate his design plan. These classes were
44 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
“Because the tools I use allow for the precision I want, I might take hours
perfecting a design,” he notes. Pruitt might go through five to ten versions in
order to get the final design he envisioned.
opportunities for skilled entrepreneurs. Pruitt’s
experience with machinery, his comprehension of the
properties of metals and his ability to design were an
asset. As his business, Custom Steel, became
successful, he expanded it and hired others to work
with him. By 1999 he oversaw thirteen employees and
decided to move his business back to New Mexico.
But by the early 2000s, overseas companies selling
mass products at low prices made it more difficult to
compete in the industry. Although Pruitt had focused
his business on modest quantities of unique
products, he began to evaluate his future endeavors.
He needed a change, and says, “I loved creating
and decided to return to my roots and more
traditional forms.” Cutting back his Custom Steel
business, he began planning to make jewelry for
Southwestern art enthusiasts. After working so
many years in stainless steel and accompanying
machinery and techniques, he felt that returning to
silverwork would seem almost foreign. So, he began
what no traditional American Indian jeweler had
done before him. He began to fashion art jewelry
out of stainless steel.
Using all that he had learned about machinery at
SMU and Texas Instruments as well as art studies at
SMU and independent research, Pruitt set out to
make larger jewelry items. His design sense was also
influenced by his life path and personal interests, like
appreciation for Japanese art, to which he was
drawn both “artistically and philosophically.” He
sees parallels in Japanese swordmaking noting,
“Swordmaking is very disciplined. The swordsmiths
are studying under masters to learn and follow a
regimen toward perfection. They are following a
process.” Pruitt also admires Japanese calligraphy,
vessel making and anime.
Pruitt had never participated in any of the
Southwestern art fairs but as he developed his
jewelry, he began to think about unique items that
could be entered in jewelry competitions. The first
BELT BUCKLES of 6Al 4V titanium; CNC machined, hydraulic press formed, pulse arc welded, electro-anodized, sanded, 2013. Opposite page,
top row: BRACELET of zirconium 702; CNC machined, hydraulic press formed, forced oxidization, sanded, 2013. BRACELET of 316L stainless steel,
stingray leather; CNC machined, hydraulic press formed, bead blasted, 2011. BRACELETS of zirconium 702; CNC machined, hydraulic press
formed, forced oxidization, 2013. bottow row: F1 SERIES V6.0 belt buckle of 6Al 4V titanium, MokuTi (forge welded titanium); CNC machined,
juried show for which he designed a specific jewelry
item was the 2006 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair
& Market. Pruitt planned a concho belt made of
stainless steel rather than traditional
silver. Also, instead of adorning the
center in a typical way with a single
turquoise or a cluster of stones, Pruitt
planned that the center of
each concho would hold an actual
one hundred dollar casino chip. Each
chip would be from a different
Southwestern casino giving each center
a different look and at times a different
color. According to Pruitt, “I gave my
sister Anne nine hundred dollars to
run around to different casinos and
buy one hundred dollar chips.” Pruitt
won a second place ribbon at the
Heard Fair in the jewelry division for
belts as well as two honorable mention
awards for entries in the personal
adornment division. He created quite a
stir at the Fair not only for the stainless steel belt,
which was titled “Wampum Belt—Balancing the
Good and the Bad,” but also for his entire jewelry
line. Of particular interest was a series of bracelets of
varying widths that were made of stainless steel but
the top of each was covered with
stingray leather. The irregular,
somewhat bumpy surfaces of the
stingray leather and the reflective
almost iridescent qualities added to the
mystique of the jewelry.
From that point on, Pruitt’s entries
in the Heard Fair and in the
Southwestern Association for Indian
Arts (SWAIA) Market in Santa Fe have
been unusual but distinctive in terms
of precision, line and form. Several
other interesting entries in the Heard
Fair are worth noting. In 2007, Pruitt
won the Conrad House Award for
Innovation for “Lucky 13,” the studded
collar and chain made in memory of
his dog Mooch. In 2008, he was
awarded an honorable mention for a
bracelet “Gold Lightning,” and in 2011 for a necklace
“CSSTV.2.0” and again in 2012 “Tactical Cowboy
hydraulic press formed, pulse arc welded, electro-anodized, sanded, 2013. F1 SERIES V2.0 of 316L stainless steel, fine silver, teflon coating, natural
coral, natural bisbee turquoise; CNC machined, hydraulic press formed, pulse arc welded, hand inlay, collaboration with Chris Pruitt, 2011. BELT
BUCKLE of zirconium 702, MokuTi (forge welded titanium); CNC machined, hydraulic press formed, pulse arc welded, flame oxidized and forced
oxidization, sanded, 2013.
Spurs” received awards in the Andy Eisenberg
Contemporary Jewelry category. Pruitt and
his brother Chris won a first place award for a
collaborative bolo tie in 2010. Pruitt also
was awarded first place in 2013 in the Andy
Eisenberg Contemporary category for the necklace
“Midnight Rendezvous.”
He won the Innovation Award at the 2011 SWAIA
Market for “A Fine Line,” a belt that had QR (Quick
Response) Codes on each of the nine conchos. At the
Friday night preview, people were using their cell
phones to read the code, which was a poem.
Concho Number and what the code reads
1) A Fine Line.
2) We respect our culture and tradition.
3) The world revolves around us.
4) It has been given to us to protect.
5) This is the razor’s edge.
6) We balance on this line.
7) We run in both worlds.
8) We speak without saying words.
9) www.patpruitt.com
46 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
But Pruitt notes his honorable mention in the
2009 Heard Fair was the most challenging to date. He
describes his work on “Hot Rod Fruit Bowl” as “sheer
terror.” Designing the bowl was so important to him
that he spent countless hours drawing the flames to
perfection, spending excessive amounts of time on
the little curves in the design. After the design was
finished, he cut the bowl from a single piece of
stainless steel and then had to grind all of the edges
and polish each one. Polishing was the most difficult
step because the piece in its entirety had to be
polished in a flat form before he handformed the
sheet of stainless to make the finished shape. In all, it
took twelve to fifteen hours of polishing. Pruitt
notes, “It was exhausting. I could not let my
attention sway one bit.” Next, he had to handraise
the polished sheet with a hammer and follow with
touch up polishing.
How does he do it? Pruitt describes some of the
basic steps. He begins with pencil and paper and
SUN WORSHIPPER necklace of 6Al 4V titanium, polycrystalline photo-voltaic cells, stainless steel cable, rubber tubing; CNC machined, pulse arc
welded, bead blasted, 2013. F1 SERIES V1.0 belt buckle of 316L stainless steel, natural Lone Mountain turquoise, natural coral, twenty-four karat
gold; CNC machined, hydraulic press formed, pulse arc welded, hand inlay, polished, sanded, collaboration with Chris Pruitt, 2011. A FINE LINE
concho belt of 316L stainless steel; CNC machined, hydraulic press formed, pulse arc welded, laser engraved, bead blasted finish, 2011.
sketches a concept. He might have forty to fifty
drawings of one prototype and from that Pruitt takes
one or two that he refines into what he describes as a
hyper-detailed sketch. Scanning the design into a
computer results in a digital image that he can
perfect. “Because the tools I use allow for the
precision I want, I might take hours perfecting a
design,” he notes. Pruitt might go through five to ten
versions in order to arrive at what he envisioned. At
that point he uses machines, some of them that he
designed, to cut and mill the desired shapes. Using
CNC technology and three-axis machinery, Pruitt can
coordinate the machinery to make spiral or lateral
cuts in the metal. He begins with stainless steel sheet
metal to make a bracelet or metal tubing for a ring.
Other metals he employs are titanium and zirconium.
Depending on the object, he might weld or solder in
order to fuse two pieces of metal.
Finishing is one of the final steps. Pruitt uses
sandblasting if he needs a more aggressive finishing
technique and bead blasting to create a texture,
roughen the surface, or to acquire a different hue or
color. Because the beads are smoother, often the
finish is more satiny in appearance and light gray in
color. Pruitt might add silver or gold to the stainless
steel base for designs on some jewelry. These softer
metals can be cut to desired shapes and hammered
into place. He has also used industrial diamonds in
his work. From the onset of his foray in Southwestern
jewelry, Pruitt has included unusual materials such as
stingray leather or shark skin. Most recently, he has
incorporated polycrystalline solar cells in titanium
belt buckles and necklaces. What is next? We cannot
wait to see.
SUN WORSHIPPER belt buckle of 6Al 4V titanium, polycrystalline photo-voltaic cells; CNC machined, pulse arc welded, bead blasted,
2013. F1 SERIES V1.0 bolo tie of 316L stainless steel, natural Lone Mountain turquoise, natural coral, twenty-four karat gold; CNC machined,
hydraulic press formed, pulse arc welded, hand inlay, polished, sanded, collaboration with Chris Pruitt, 2011. WEDDING BAND of MokuTi
(forge welded titanium), twenty-four karat gold; hand-machined, flame oxidized, 2013.
47 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
SUGGESTED READING
Cirillo, Dexter. Southwestern Indian Jewelry: Crafting New Traditions. New York:
Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2008.
Fauntleroy, Gussie. “Groundbreakers.” Native Peoples Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 1,
34-35, 2008.
Haaland, Debra A. “Introducing: Pat Pruitt.” New Mexico Magazine, Vol. 85, No. 8,
78-79, 2007.
Pardue, Diana F. Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith
Publisher, 2007.
Ringlero, Aleta. “Man of Steel: Innovative Jeweler Pat Pruitt.” National Museum of
the American Indian, Vol. 9, No. 2, 18-21, 2008.
Celie Fago
One twig, one hinge,
one book at a time.
W
hen asked about
how she develops
her designs, Celie Fago states that the
process is nonlinear—“I’m not methodical in that
way,” she says. She works in what she calls “painfully
small increments,” one aspect of an idea leading
to another, “one little embellishment to the next.”
As an example, she describes a hinged box she is
working on and how she might decide to make it with
a copper hinge pin—one small change that will move
her forward.
Some of Fago’s work is driven by the materials she
is exploring. For the past couple of years she has been
working with Mitsubishi’s new sterling Precious
Metal Clay, which was produced for the durability it
adds to silver. To test it, she started doing a number
of pierced designs—covered with holes, “like Swiss
cheese,” she says—something that could not be done
in fine silver.
That idea of making little openings in something
led Fago to create tiny books, which feature those
Swiss cheese holes and minute hinges. They are
pendants, although the artist first conceived of them
as charms. She has found that the term charm can be
off-putting; in any case, the book pieces were a little
too big and restrictive to be labeled as such. She has
designed some larger ones and is even thinking they
might at some point be free-standing objects.
Fago has discovered that students are as fascinated
by the idea of books and hinges, so she has built a
class around their fabrication. The motif not only has
a certain mystique at its heart, it also makes economic
sense: PMC has become expensive so small is good.
Unlike a locket, the books have very little volume;
they are more like two covers. For a number of these
pieces, Fago employs the tear-away technique
invented by Gwen Gibson in the early 1990s for use
with polymer clay. This transfer process entails
burnishing a photocopy of a design onto the clay,
letting it sit, and then tearing
it away. The photocopy toner
binds with the polymer so that when the paper is
pulled off it bears a layer of clay. At the same time, the
clay from which the paper has been torn bears a relief
of the image. Fago uses both the paper and the
textured relief in her book pieces, depending on how
they work with the design.
Sometimes the tear-away design is drawn from
texts, which heightens the “bookness” of the object.
She cuts up and collages different examples of
typeface—Asian, old English, etc. “It’s important that
it’s writing,” she says, “graphically, visually.” She will
photocopy the text and then convert it and reverse it.
Sometimes the resulting writing resembles
petroglyphs. Fago is thinking that the next step for the
book pendants may be to incorporate an actual tiny
bound paper book. She plans to study bookmaking
and discuss the idea with book artists. While she
considers herself “centrally located” in PMC, she is
always considering new materials.
In addition to being stronger, Mitsubishi’s sterling
PMC has a slightly different binder that gives the
material a longer open working period and greater
flexibility when it is dried (before it is fired). Fago
exploited these characteristics in a simple and
striking diamond ring: the surface of the piece was
whittled with a scalpel and a straw. “It’s like frozen
butter,” she says of the clay. The ring is activated
in part because it took no time to carve: it is fresh
and immediate.
One of Fago’s favorite materials in recent years are
tiny twigs she picks up during long daily walks in the
woods around her home in the town of Bethel, in
central Vermont. “There are little stacks of sticks
everywhere in my house,” she relates with a smile.
Back in her studio, Fago will take those that are
special for one reason or another—their hardness,
their texture, the quality of moss fixed to them—and
Opposite page and above: BOOK LOCKET of sterling silver, eighteen and twenty-four karat gold (keum-boo), 1.9 centimeters high, 2013.
All jewelry photographs by Robert Diamante.
49 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Carl Little
50 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
incorporate them in her jewelry. She stains some of
them with paint, others she carves. She places tiny
metal caps on their ends. A recent necklace features
three of these twigs with capped ends (as does the pin
Fago made for Dan Cormier’s Broken Telephone
Project—see Ornament, Vol. 36, No. 4).
Occasionally, Fago will work from a rough
drawing or notes in a sketchbook, but generally
she will find ideas in the cartographer’s drawer next
to her work desk. The large drawer is full of parts
in different states and she will look over these
forms and pieces for ideas. “I’m doing something
different all the time,”
she explains, “to the
point where it drives
me around the bend.”
You might say
Fago’s journey to her
current stature as
jeweler and sought-
artistically inclined. A southern belle from Lexington,
Kentucky, she had moved to New York City to further
her painting career and, her daughter adds, “to
find a man from an ethnic group guaranteed
to alienate her daddy.” Vince Fago fit the bill: a
second-generation Italian.
The couple lived in Greenwich Village until 1951
when, pregnant with Celie, D’Ann convinced her
husband to leave the high-stress city with its requisite
smoking and drinking for a quieter life in Rockland
County, thirty miles north of Manhattan. Thanks to
this move, their daughter grew up in the countryside,
barefoot and happy in
the woods and
fields—but close
enough to the city
that the family made
frequent trips to visit
museums. By the late
1960s, what was once
an
after teacher began
before she was
born—a kind of
genetic propensityy for
ay. In
the arts was in play.
er life
an overview of her
t and
and work to faculty
students at
the Haystack Mountain
School of Crafts, she
started her PowerPoint with a slide showing the cover
of a vintage copy of The Human Torch, an icon in the
history of comic books. Why this image of the fiery
red superhero? Fago’s father, Vincent, was a
cartoonist and writer who served as interim editor of
Timely Comics, predecessor to Marvel Comics, while
Stan Lee was serving in World War II. Fago’s mother,
Dorothy Ann Calhoun (known as D’Ann), was also
a rural
r
getaway had
bec
become
a bedroom
com
community
for the
Big Apple. In 1968
the family moved
furthe north, settling
further
t o
hundre
on a twohundred-acre
farm in the
tiny town of Bethel,
Vermont. Celie’s father
died in 2002; her mother, who is ninety-six,
continues to draw every day (she had a seventy-fiveyear retrospective at Studio Place Arts in Barre,
Vermont, in 2012).
“I never made a conscious choice to be an artist,”
Fago notes. “It was expected of me, assumed that I
would go into the ‘family business,’ and I did.” The
artistic genes began to manifest themselves early on.
CELIE FAGO wearing one of her pendants. BEE PENDANT of sterling silver, twenty-four karat gold (keum-boo), brass rivets, polymer clay, 5.1
centimeters diameter, 2012. URBAN RINGS of sterling silver, twenty-four karat gold (keum-boo), 1.3 centimeters high, 2012.
She drew very well and was interested in graphic arts,
including various printmaking mediums. She also
studied painting at the Massachusetts College of Art.
In 1991, Fago moved to her family’s home in
Vermont, and not long after, a friend sent her some
buttons made from a colorful plastic material. She was
smitten and went out to purchase her first polymer
clay. She read the manual that came with it and was
soon experimenting with this flexible modeling clay
that had recently been adopted by jewelers. Up until
this time, Fago had never worked in jewelry. She had
spent a summer at Penland when she was sixteen, but
the session was meant to introduce artists to the
she felt something was missing. The material felt too
light, both in actual weight and aesthetically. “A piece
of polymer clay jewelry that is absolutely stunning in a
photograph,” she points out, “feels light when you
actually handle it.” To her, the material lacked
gravitas. What it needed was more weight.
Fago “beat the bushes” for a metalsmithing class.
She knew nothing about metal at the time. Indeed, she
is embarrassed to recall wondering how one could cut
a shape out of a metal sheet. What tools would be
used? The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s
Craft Studies program in Hanover proved to be the
answer. The studio was (and still is) run by Kerstin
concept of “living their lives through crafts” rather
than to serve as a study of any single craft.
Fago felt that she could do something with the
polymer clay. The material had the form and color in
one malleable, willing material—and it satisfied what
she felt was a long-time, if secret, longing: to work in
three dimensions. Using wood gouges from her
mother’s printmaking kit from the 1940s, she carved
into the baked material and rubbed paint in the
carved lines. An early lizard pendant in polymer clay
shows her remarkable sense of design.
At the time, jewelry in polymer clay was somewhat
“unfledged.” There were a handful of artists doing
interesting work in the medium in jewelry, including
Cynthia Toops, Nan Roche and Tory Hughes. While
Fago followed advances in the medium with interest,
Nichols, a classically trained metalsmith—“a
wonderful teacher and jeweler,” says Fago. She took
workshops and classes with Nichols for years and
apprenticed to her. Fago learned as much about
metalsmithing as she could, recognizing that the
artform takes years to master. She learned some
fundamentals that enabled her to progress in her
jewelry. She quickly began to combine metal with
clay; the settings for a stunning ibis pendant were
made in the metals studio at the league.
In the late 1990s, jeweler and author Tim
McCreight invited Fago to Haystack to teach a
workshop in polymer clay. While seated in the dining
hall one day, McCreight took two packets of Precious
Metal Clay from his pocket and pushed them across
the table. If, as Fago jokes, polymer clay was the
HOLLOW FORM BOX BRACELET of sterling silver, eighteen and twenty-four karat gold (keum-boo), 2002. POLYMER INLAY RING of fine silver,
sterling silver (ring shank), polymer clay, brass, 2011.
51 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
The Vermont-based jeweler is a master at combining polymer
clay, PMC and metalsmithing to create new designs.
52 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
gateway drug, PMC was the “hard stuff.” While the
Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi had brought PMC
to the states, Fago notes that it was McCreight who
ensured it made its way into the hands of jewelers.
While Fago had heard about this new medium, she
did not really know what it was. She took it home,
removed it from its package and hated it. “It didn’t do
what I wanted it to do,” she remembers, “and I was
stumped.” Wanting to give a positive report to
McCreight, she ducked his calls for several weeks.
As her supply dwindled, Fago felt paralyzed.
Solution: she saved some money and bought thirty
packets of PMC. It was a major investment on her
part, but she felt she needed a larger amount of
clay. With a big pile she felt relieved. And discovering
that Saran Wrap could slow the drying process—a
major breakthrough that Fago still smiles about for
its ridiculous simplicity—she turned a corner.
She dropped her tense shoulders and started to
breathe again.
Fago kept in touch with McCreight and became
more involved in the medium. In the late 1990s
she also learned more about combining materials:
“You get to a little dead end on one and then you
go to another and you have fresh ideas and mix
them together.” With metalsmithing, PMC and
polymer clay in her material chest, she was set to
explore and expand.
Inventive and innovative, Fago worked amongst
the mediums with great freedom. To create a pendant
with a design based loosely on cuneiform writing, she
impressed a pattern in polymer clay and then pressed
metal clay into the design. The resulting PMC piece
might be a Bronze Age relic. In a brooch that features
a photograph of two Adirondack chairs, Fago
experimented with co-firing copper alloys with PMC.
Since the brass wires would not fuse to fine silver, she
captured them with wraps of fine silver wire, which
does interact. She used pine needles to texture the
frame and a thin sheet of mica to protect the
photograph. A backing of polymer clay holds the pin’s
hardware in place.
Fago considers herself fortunate to have been able
to experiment with new materials over the last fifteen
or so years. In the early 2000s she mastered keum-boo
and ended up writing Keum-Boo on Silver because, she
notes, there was not a comprehensive book on the
technique in English and “I wanted one.” She was a
beta tester for BronzClay and Copprclay. “I just have
kept it open,” she says.
Teaching is a big part of Fago’s life because, as she
explains, she lives a very quiet one. “Getting out and
mixing it up with people—putting myself in a
BOOK MARK of sterling silver, bronze, 1.9 centimeters square, 2013.
position where I am feeding and being fed by
students—I find to be really important.” She is one of
eight senior instructors for the Rio Grande Rewards
Program and has taught a master class in book lockets
and hinged boxes at the Bead and Button show in
Milwaukee. She also offers five semiprivate classes
each year at her Vermont home.
In speaking about what makes a good teacher,
Fago cites her father. All good teachers, he would say,
know their subject and have patience. “You’re
incredibly vulnerable when you’re a student,” says the
MICA FRAME BOOK LOCKET of sterling silver, mica riveted over leaf
skeletons, 3.8 centimeters high, 2013.
reports with pride and pleasure that Kahn has a
flourishing jewelry business of her own, working in
PMC. Fago’s second serious apprentice, Erin MehargHarris, who is also a University of Vermont graduate,
started working with her two years ago. MehargHarris, who has developed a successful line of pet
portrait jewelry and reliquaries, accompanied Fago to
Haystack this year to help facilitate her workshop.
As far as marketing her work goes, Fago has a
robust website featuring Robert Diamante
photographs of her one-of-a-kind and limited edition
work. Her former apprentice Kahn set her up with an
account on Etsy, that worldwide “egalitarian”
marketplace. “If I don’t have Etsy,” she notes, “I have
work sitting in a bag for six or seven months, not
doing anything,” adding, “With Etsy, it’s out there
and people want to see sold work.”
Back at Haystack, the ten or so students in Fago’s
workshop take a very brief break from their work
to greet a visitor to the studio overlooking the ocean.
Fago has them focusing on polymer bracelets,
which serve as a “blank canvas” to which the students
add an array of adornments made in PMC. Fago is
also covering polymer mokume (layering of
translucent clay), texturing (including the
aforementioned tear-away technique), carving
and painting textured surfaces. Add some
metalsmithing techniques to the mix and the
students are fully engaged.
Fago continues to delve into the process of her
jewelrymaking—and of art in general. She recently
read Mason Curry’s Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
and has been enjoying choreographer Twyla Tharpe’s
The Creative Habit. She is fascinated by artists’
rituals—What time do they go to work? What do they
wear? How many hours do they work at a time?
Asked about her own rituals, Fago replies, “I
walk.” That’s the centering element for a very fertile
and productive life in art that seems to endlessly
evolve—one twig, one hinge, one book at a time.
SUGGESTED READING
Bone, Elizabeth. Silversmithing for Jewelry Makers: A Handbook of Techniques and
Surface Treatments. Loveland: Interweave, 2012.
Dancik, Robert. Amulets and Talismans: Simple Techniques for Creating Meaningful
Jewelry. Blue Ash: North Light Books, 2009.
Diffendaffer, Grant. Polymer Clay Beads: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration. Asheville:
Lark Crafts, reprint edition 2011.
Fago, Celie. Keum-Boo on Silver: Techniques for Applying 24K Gold on Silver. Selfpublished, 2004; revised and expanded edition, 2007.
McCreight, Tim, and various authors. PMC Technic: A Collection of Techniques for
Precious Metal Clay. Brunswick: Brynmorgen Press, 2007 (chapter by Fago on
PMC hinges).
53 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
jeweler, who continues to take classes herself each
year. “You put your trust in someone you probably
don’t know very well to handle you kindly, patiently
and explain things.” She is continually amazed by
students who come up with a different question about
something she has been teaching for years.
Fago believes in the benefits of apprenticeships.
She has been involved with them since she was twenty,
either as one herself or serving as a mentor. In 2001,
University of Vermont graduate Jennifer Kahn
became her live-in apprentice, staying till 2010. Fago
54 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Tamara W. Hill
FALL FLOWER JACKET of hand-embroidered cotton suzani
from Uzbekistan, lined with cotton ikat from India, tulle
trim with mohair yarn embroidery and beads from Italy,
vintage button of mother of pearl from Pakistan. Necklace
by Gretchen Schields, hat by Claudia Grau. Photographs
by Suzi Click, except where noted. Opposite page: Suzi
Click photograph by David B. Lewis.
55 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
S
cratch the surface of Suzi Click’s daily penchant
for donning delightfully layered and multicultural
“hippie chick” attire, and there is a mature artist
with an international outlook and a well-honed design
perspective. Her approach reveals a joyful focus on an
enthusiastic creative dictum that “more is better”—
advocating the message that with a confident mixture
of elements, every woman can be empowered about
expressing herself fashionably through her unique
personal selection of attire and adornment. Click aims
to design vividly collaged artisan apparel and accessories
for those “who want to be noticed for their style and
stand out in a crowd, to express their inner selves and to
openly acknowledge their innate goddess.”
Click’s home is a spacious 1924 Spanish Revival/
Craftsman style structure in central Los Angeles, with
an adjacent converted garage that is now a two-level
studio/workspace, which she shares with her artist
husband, David B. Lewis. It is an enchanting magic
carpet world filled with a lush cornucopia of
intertwined patterns and textures, imbued with the
richly saturated rainbow of colors that are inspired
by her frequent far-flung travels, and by her
unabashedly passionate collecting of textiles, objects,
images, decorative furniture, and folk art that are
curated into altar-like arrangments. Certain spaces
within the house are dedicated to a particular
suggestive theme, such as iconic retablos depicting
the Virgin of Guadalupe (symbolizing the presence of
“woman power”) alongside of ornate crosses; or
multiple images of one of her most venerated style
exemplars, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo—who
proclaimed that one should “dress every day like it is
a fiesta”—a motto that Click heartily endorses.
During her journeys she makes keen forays into
the bazaars, souks, villages, and artists’ workshops
whose spirit-infused handicrafts she treasures and
gathers. She loves to shop and is always on a
dedicated quest for lengths of distinctive fabrics,
handwoven panels, intricate borders, and special
buttons or tassels which she then deftly incorporates
into her own assemblages of wearable, one-of-akind designs.
So how does a girl who was raised in various small
East Texas towns, (but whose family had moved
frequently, shifting to West Texas during her teens),
get so interested in the realm of fashion and design,
let alone in world travel? Click had always harbored
an interest in putting together fabrics and
ornamental trims, which likely grew out of observing
her grandmother sew dresses from printed cotton
flour sacks. She made her own miniature doll clothes
using a toy sewing machine, until she finally got her
first full-sized Singer during eighth grade, when she
learned the fundamentals of basic stitching and
tailoring skills in her home economics classes.
56 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
MAURITANIA BLUE JACKET of hand-dyed linen from Mauritania,
vintage sari border trim. Jewelry by Gretchen Schields. Photograph by
Karen Harley.
Attiring oneself properly for church attendance
was de rigueur in rural Texas, and for Easter, she
enjoyed getting a fresh ensemble each year, replete
with new shoes, hat and purse. This prompted the
admittedly shy girl to otherwise express herself
through those annual fancy outfits (and to continue
to enjoy both creating and wearing elaborate hats and
caps in her adult years). Family summer vacations to
Colorado exposed Click to the Southwest’s souvenir
shops which displayed Navajo rugs, silver and
turquoise jewelry, beaded moccasins, cowboy boots,
decorated shirts, and fringed deerskin jackets, which
no doubt added to her cultural memory bank and
stimulated some of her future predilections.
An embroidered Palestinian taqsireh jacket made
of black velvet couched with sinuous metallic
embroidery, which her father had brought as a gift
for her mother upon his return from World War II
duty in Egypt, made a strong impression upon the
girl’s youthful imagination, and she delightedly
paraded in it while playing “dress up.” She later
inherited and still values this special garment for
having germinated her lifelong interest in tribal
cultures and costume—it has clearly served as an
influential example and signpost for her notions of
style and embellishment.
Click began her career directing a fashion design
program in Atlanta; then moved on to designing for
junior sportswear companies. In New York during
the 1980s, she worked for Wrangler jeans, where the
perks included trips to Europe to field for new
trends. Manhattan provided the opportunity to delve
into the museums and galleries and benefit from
cultural activities, while residing in the newly
thriving Tribeca loft district.
Transferring back to San Francisco to work for
Levi Strauss, she then finally settled in Los Angeles.
After ending her thirty years in the commercial
apparel industry—and giving considerable thought to
acting upon her pent-up desire to bring her
ambitions and more personal designing interests
to fruition—in 2001 she established her own
eponymous wearable art clothing company. From
her initial offerings of delicate scarves and feminine
shawls with vintage sari borders, frilly feathers and
translucent beaded fringes, she has expanded to a
wide variety of garments, treasure bags and most
recently has added decorative pillows. These items
are each designed, cut and tailored one-by-one in her
studio, and are all sewn in Los Angeles. She
subsequently added another venture called Two Girls
Dancing, consisting of a casual line of fitted stretch
57 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
MOROCCAN JACKET of Moroccan table scarf
jacquard fabric, Indian shisha mirror embroidery,
vintage serape hat with ivory coat wax batik.
“As an artist I have always
been influenced by tribal
cultures—their costumes, their
fabrics and especially their
use of embellishment and
ability to mix different
elements together.”
58 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
NAGA TUNIC of handwoven fabric from the Naga tribe of Burma and
India, hand-loomed Peruvian trim, hand-dyed indigo sleeve from Mali,
silk lining. Earrings by Gretchen Schields.
denim jeans and capri pants with embellished details
that are produced in China.
All of Click’s fashion industry experiences
alongside of her travels have set the stage for her
creative evolution and have served as crucial
touchstones for the development of her hallmark
design philosophy. She refers to this as “an eclectic
cross-cultural style”—based on devising a wellconsidered “total look.” She has often moderated
popular panel discussions on “How to Create Your
Own Style with Artwear” at the annual Pasadena
Bead and Design Show. It is her personal calling and
mission to encourage women of all ages, sizes and
tastes to realize their own individual creative
potential with their wardrobes, urging them to
become adventuresome with whatever they may have
on hand in their closets or drawers. And Click is her
own best model of this principle as a “walking work
of brilliantly colored textural art.”
Of particular note for her is the fact that so many
handicrafts across the globe are made primarily by
women. She affirms that the enduring spirit—as well
as the heart-and-soul that emanates from the
creators—are valuable testaments to their cultures,
which she can honor, support and carry forward
by purchasing and incorporating their creations
and traditions into her own contemporary
interpretations. She maintains a sense of wonder, and
an open-minded pan-religious attitude; and is
equally captivated by universally meaningful sacred
emblems and figures, by the sense of place or
community history which they embody; and by
the vital energy that emerges from all spiritually
based cultures.
Many couture designers have offered another
source of significant inspiration—among them, Paul
Poiret, who reigned in Paris during the 1920s Art
Deco era. She looks to his unconfined flowing
Flapper silhouettes marked by oriental influences,
kimono or cocoon-like shapes, beading, fringed
hems, harem pants, and smart cloche hats. Among
the prominent style mavens who have caught Click’s
eye and encouraged her point of view is the elder
icon Iris Apfel. Now in her nineties, this interior
decorator (whose trademark is her oversized blackframed eyeglasses) has long been a proponent of
irreverently combining high-end couture fashion
with the unconventional finds she has amassed from
the world’s bazaars or from local thrift stores. She
puts it all together in a Felliniesque theatrical
manner—which Click emulates and demonstrates
daily in her own version of a vibrant mosaic of
personal dress.
Her diversity of personal aesthetic influences,
early career experiences and ongoing wanderlust has
meshed into a rich tapestry of creative activity that
ultimately converges in Click’s workshop when she
embarks on any one of her latest designs. She says
that her inner need to travel has also truly expanded
her “tool kit” with a broader vocabulary of colors and
forms, and has especially increased her sensitivity
towards the observation of details. The approach she
takes to organizing her household’s displays of art
and decor also serves as a referential guide map and
BACHMAL JACKET of velvet Ikat from Uzbekistan, Mongolian lamb trim,
silk lining. Hat made from Uzbek suzani, vintage tapestry and tassel
from Uzbekistan.
antique Indian sari trim in a paisley motif, soft rabbit
fur cuff and collar accents. Other examples of the
versatile garments she has created include tunics and
blouses, reversible vests featuring two different color
schemes and types of trim, with multiple pockets, as
well as poncho-based coats and ruana shawls.
Relying on her extensive repertoire of handcrafted
elements from many cultures, Suzi Click draws upon
a global palette of resources that also expresses her
inclusive attitude and constitutes a welcoming,
worldwide collaboration of artisanship. She
simultaneously celebrates the origins and makers of
the fabrics and accoutrements that she loves and
acquires, while integrating, re-purposing and thus
transforming them exuberantly into her own
contemporary art-to-wear apparel.
59 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
basis for the manner in which she conceives,
assembles and fashions her apparel—and for the
collecting and laying out of the fabrics and trims
which then dictate the design itself.
She works primarily from a concept of structure,
and has trained her eye to combine the various
components harmoniously, based on shapes, subtle
connections or contrasts between graphic designs and
blocks of color. First she cuts flat paper patterns then
copies them with muslin cloth to pin, drape and test
the fit and overall shapes, just as she had learned in
home economics. Click loves the model of tribal
cultures—wherein there are traditional rules
governing the prototypes of design, format or
technique which must be adhered to—but then slight
individual artistic variations are permitted and
encouraged. Her own designs have segued from her
first ethereal flirty scarves and dressy special occasion
pieces in opulent panne velvets and sumptuous sheer
silks, to everyday pieces suited to a more casual
lifestyle, in more wearable cottons and comfortable
fabric choices.
Any perusal of her inventory makes it obvious
that Click has combed the world’s markets for a
special confetti of varied and vintage materials. Her
selections might include a Moroccan tapestry scarf
with a mirror-inset shisha fragment from Gujarat; a
luxurious silk velvet ikat from Uzbekistan with curly
black Mongolian lamb trim; a rare Japanese obi sash;
a Peruvian Shipibo appliquéd panel tunic; or printed
indigo cotton yardage from Mali with handwoven
Uzbek Jiyak braid and vintage tortoise button. The
choices are endless and may be spontaneous, but
every scrap is fair game for effective use. If a
fragment is not incorporated into the body of an
entire garment, it will be inventively applied to a cuff,
scarf, purse flap, or bag strap, along with fluffy
feathers, strands of beading, shimmery gold and
silver-threaded trim, shiny paillettes, or sequins. She
notes wryly that Texas women tend to “like a little
bling and flash,” so this transplanted native Texan
cannot resist adding a few sparkles. Linings and
facings may consist of iridescent Vietnamese
jacquards, light chiffons or textured dupioni silks.
Click has designed everything from crinkled,
pieced and scalloped scarves of shibori-dyed cotton
voile, vintage metallic sari borders, beaded fringes, to
dusters composed of a slinky V-neck velvet self-tied
top and sleeves, with a flouncy silk chiffon lower
section embedded with metallic mesh flowers and
sequins. There are also elegant yet practical jackets of
tendril ornamented black Kashmiri wool, edged by
SAVANNAH COLLEGE
OF ART & DESIGN
I
n this day and age, we are blessed by many opportunities and challenges. Although the realities of
our economy mean there are definite obstacles in obtaining our dream job, so too are we enabled by
having tools in place in order to reach them. Education, in this instance, is that double-edged sword.
Corporations and market forces dictate that certain careers are more advantageous (to whom, we must
inquire), in terms of monetary gain and financial success, but one would think after so many years of
human development that personal satisfaction and fulfillment would rank high in society’s priorities.
Apparently, this is what the founders and faculty of the Savannah College of Art & Design consider as
part of their mission. Established in 1978 in southeast Georgia, SCAD’s purpose was to provide
professional artistic training to the residents of the surrounding region, and form a locus from which to
branch and create more campuses to expedite this goal globally. The school took an interesting approach
to building its physical structure. Instead of constructing new edifices, SCAD had historic buildings and
landmarks from around the town of Savannah renovated into new lives as classrooms. To this day, this
practice is followed in its other three locations, Atlanta, Lacoste in France, and Hong Kong, and its
students and faculty are themselves involved in the renovation process. As far as the central campus is
concerned, every major college building is repurposed, except for the dormitories. This includes a
formidable museum, which though having passed through many different incarnations used to be the
Central of Georgia Railway headquarters.
with the fiber and furniture departments at the college to
have students develop bedding for those in the unfortunate
circumstances of lacking their own. Prototypes were
developed to provide for the needs of people in the three
different stages of homelessness; those who were on the
street, those who lived in shelters, and those who were in
transitional housing. The results were inventive and
astounding; the Safe Bed, as one outcome, was developed
to meet the needs of people living on the street. Essentially
a sleeping bag/hammock with environmental protection all
rolled up into one, the Safe Bed was a functional realization
of the powers of art and design combined.
Besides the goal of creating immersion and utilizing
their talents for real-world applications, SCAD’s primary
mission is to make sure its students can use its programs
to achieve the expertise required for any possibly desired
occupation. This one-size-fits-all approach involves
elective customization in order to ensure that a student
who wishes to become an industry professional as well
as one who intends on pursuing their own career as a
studio craftsperson are equally served.
To this end, the college has been experimenting with its
jewelry curriculum over the past few years in order to
better serve the needs of its students. Jewelry program
chair Jay Song is quite enthusiastic about its potential.
Left: SPLASHING & ORBIT
#2 brooch/pendant
by Bongsang Cho,
of splash cast copper,
twenty-three karat gold
leaf, vitreous enamel, laser welded
steel, silver granules, and aluminum, 8.9 x
12.7 centimeters, 2011. IN BLOOM 1: PINK
ORIENTAL PEONY brooch by Hsiang-Ting
Yen, of copper, carbon steel, opaque
enamel, 6.4 x 8.9 centimeters, 2010.
GARDEN OF TIME (Reversible Bracelet)
by Kristen Baird, of sterling silver,
amethyst, citrine, tanzanite, iolite,
rhodolite garnet, cubic zirconia; roller
printing, fabrication, stone setting,
2012/13. Photographs of jewelry and
clothing courtesy of the artists.
Opposite page: THE FIBER
DEPARTMENT BUILDING at
the Savannah College
of Art & Design. All other
photographs by Patrick
R. Benesh-Liu.
61 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
While rooted in history, the college has focused on
the here and now, particularly in empowering its
students with fieldwork and industry opportunities. In
the school’s jewelry program, there is an industry
sponsored course, where students do collaborative work
with name brand firms in multidisciplinary projects. On
the studio practice end of things, there is a visiting artist
program, once per quarter, where an invited craftsperson
gives a four-day design workshop. In 2012, Biba Schutz
was one such illustrious invitee.
In the field of fiber, a parade of interactive projects
enliven semesters with both international tours and
hands-on, cooperative ventures. In one such instance,
fiber faculty Jessica Smith along with an anthropology
professor brought students to Cambodia in order to
examine local textiles such as ikat. As another example,
Guatemalan women who were skilled in traditional
weaving techniques were invited to the college, and
brought their own backstrap looms in order to instruct
students on these methods.
Cayewah Easley, the department chair, mentions a
third demonstration of SCAD’s dedication to hands-on
activities and in this case, collaboration with the
community. A friend of Easley’s worked at the local
homeless shelter in Savannah, and as a knitter partnered
2013 marks the first year a graduating class participated in
the full length of the updated curriculum, and although
not definitive, Song already has several compelling success
stories. Jennifer and Emily are two jewelry graduates who
entered SCAD in the same year. They became fast friends
early on, and both had different careers in mind for after
college. This year, they have become employed by the
luxury goods manufacturer Tiffany in their fields of
choice; Emily as a designer, at the corporation’s
headquarters in New York, and Jennifer as a bench person.
Given that both students had started at the same time and
learned the basic cutting out and laying out patterns was
fabrication, which for me was very, very frustrating.
Learning how to solder, I thought, ‘Oh gosh, this is going
to take forever,’ I don’t even know how many things I’ve
melted,” she relates, laughing. “But once you keep
practicing and practicing… I said to myself, ‘I’m just
going to keep working, working, working.’ I remember
the first time I finally got soldering, and I was sitting
there, and I thought, ‘Oh oh, so like that!’ I took the
torch off, I didn’t melt it, and it was the best day ever. So,
within that course, I did several different projects that
CLASS TAKING PLACE in the Jewelry Department building at the Savannah College of Art & Design.
62 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
This private institution has invested considerable resources, human
and material, into creating a place where students can remake themselves,
and acquire the skills and mental acuity required to become successful
members of the arts and crafts community.
gone through the same set of core courses, modulated by
electives, they represent a good benchmark for measuring
the effectiveness of the college’s new program.
And what does the coursework in one of these areas
entail? For a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in jewelry, the
fundamentals begin with technique training. The
introduction class teaches basic methods in
metalsmithing such as piercing, filing, basic cold
connections, and other fabrication, continuing on to
various types of casting, patina-work, and soldering. The
touchstone is the final project, where students take their
favorite processes and implements them in a piece they
fully construct on their own.
Kristen Baird, a BFA graduate, excitedly retells her
own experience in the class. “The first thing after we
have gotten me some awards, which is really exciting that
in the first class, they teach you so much that you can
complete something that people appreciate.”
The jewelry syllabus includes other courses, such as
Historic Processes and Studio Practices. Historic Processes
takes a look at traditional metalsmithing techniques such
as chasing and repoussé, as well as granulation, keum-boo,
and others. Studio Practices covers various elements of
jewelrymaking and concept design and development.
The college’s graduate program assumes the student is
knowledgeable about jewelrymaking, and so has a different
focus to its undergraduate division. Critiques are the tool
used to push a graduate student’s concept and hone
critical thinking skills. There are also classes which allow
students to concentrate on one particular technique in
CROPLETS DRESS by Michael-Birch Pierce and Molly Hobson
Shea, of hand-embellished cotton paper sequins with glass
beads and Swarovski crystals on cotton, 2012.
THE TREE brooch by Seungjeon Paik, of sterling silver,
twenty-four karat gold (keum-boo), wood, acrylic paint,
7.6 x 7.1 centimeters, 2013.
3D printers. MFA fibers graduate Michael-Birch Pierce
describes having access to these technological
innovations as highly interesting to engage with, using
them not to replicate results achievable with more
traditional tools, but to push new boundaries. “I think
the facilities here are insane. It’s just astounding, the
technology that we have available to us, like laser cutters,
and digital printers, and Jacquard looms, and the
amazing computer labs. I think it’s really interesting to
use technology for what it can do, and not for how it can
replicate old technology, or replace old things. So
instead of digitally printing something that can easily be
screen-printed, how am I going to use the digital printer
to do something that can only be done with the digital
printer, and how can I use the laser-cutter, not just
because I’m too lazy to exacto-knife something, but to
really produce a product that could not be made any
other way.” He emphasizes that any piece of equipment
is free to use for any SCAD student, so long as their
professor signs off that it is for schoolwork.
The fibers department also has a good selection of
traditional equipment, such as two rooms full of four
and eight harness looms, and Dobby looms, as well as a
dyeing lab. The building is another renovation, and with
its red adobe-colored tiled roof and white walls is an
imposing and elegant structure.
Michael-Birch Pierce collaborated with BFA graduate
Molly Hobson Shea on the creation of paper sequins,
that were made through using a laser-cutter. Originally a
63 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
order to develop it and increase their expertise. Bongsang
Cho, another alumnus who went through the Master of
Fine Arts program, remembers that course, Technical
Research, as being integral to his artistic progression. “The
class is self-study. The professor just advises the student
how to go deeply into the topic. For example, I brought
steel wire, and then I made something, but it’s not
interesting, yet,” he recalls. “I can do many things from
there. I take paper, cover the steel, and let the steel rust.
The rust color penetrates the paper, and I can see rust
transfer from the metal to the paper. So, I say, ‘Wow, I can
do this!’ and then I make a flower with the paper and it has
a steel wire construction imprinted on it.”
Cho notes that this ability, to creatively innovate, is
central to being an artist, and that it is not easy. “So,
maybe it’s very hard for some students because when
they reach their limits, they cannot develop more. The
teacher lets the student go further. When you graduate,
you have to figure out that problem yourself. I think the
class provides a really good solution for students.”
The school’s physical resources, in the form of its
extensive equipment made available to students in its
fiber and jewelry programs, are another compelling
factor for students choosing to attend SCAD. Both
departments are well-outfitted with traditional and
modern tools and machinery. A digital printer and a
computer-assisted Jacquard loom are examples of the
most contemporary acquisitions of fiber, while the
jewelry building houses two laser welding machines and
fashion major, she changed her degree to fibers after
taking a class as an elective. “After that class I fell in love
with the fibers program. It allowed me to control the
whole process in the garments I made, from the
production of the fabric to the actual finished piece.”
Now working at the American design firm Vera
Bradley, Shea has an increased appreciation for how the
syllabus is set up. “I really enjoyed what was required of
us for our senior portfolio. We could choose from a fine
art, studio production, or textile design portfolio. It gave
us the freedom to make what we wanted, but still had
64 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
DIGITAL PRINTER in the Fibers Department. WEAVING CLASSROOM
with eight harness looms.
enough requirements that we were also creating what
the industry wanted to see.”
The proportion of jewelry and fiber graduates who
go into different careers varies over the years and
between the fields. In 2012, forty percent of jewelry
majors went into the industry; another forty percent
established their own studio practices. The remaining
twenty percent moved on to other occupations. For
SCAD’s fiber department, sixty percent became involved
in textile design, both for apparel and interior
decorating. The remaining forty percent went into
studio design, production and fine art. That number
changes from year to year.
The exposure of the students to actual markets is
vital for those interested in being a studio craftsperson.
The college’s partnership with craft shows across the
country, like the American Craft Council shows as a
participant in its School to Market program, as well as
having been represented at the Philadelphia Museum of
Art Craft Show and the Smithsonian Craft Show with
booths, has allowed its students firsthand experience
with the environment and customers. Sometimes, this
introduction is enough to convince a person to follow
that life path. That was the case for Hsiang-Ting Yen, a
Taiwanese MFA graduate who attended the first two
years that a SCAD booth was hosted by the Philadelphia
Craft Show. Being able to personally hear feedback from
attendees, as well as be responsible for selling her jewelry
(as the school booths featured the attending students
work for sale), gave Yen the confidence and appreciation
for the exchange between buyer and maker to become a
studio jeweler herself.
Yen is also a fan of the rigorous critiques that are a
frequent part of the graduate program. “I love the time
all the graduate students can gather together to share
their concept, their progress, and the professor leads and
guides the conversation. The feedback from everybody is
priceless, you don’t get those after you graduate. To
completely speak true to yourself and to others was so
helpful. The training really helps me to build up this
very logical and structural thinking process.”
After graduation comes the real world, for which no
school can completely prepare a student. Many SCAD
graduates however have found their footing, and can
impart quite a few lessons to those who are still
studying. Local alumni come to give talks at the college,
and there are alumni studies which students can attend.
Those interviewed within this article who have
graduated now have their own businesses, or work in the
industry. Baird in particular has distilled some of the
most important tips for her fellow budding
entrepreneurs. “By far the biggest challenge is learning
how to run a business successfully. I was an artist. Now I
am an artist and business woman. I learned that the
SCORE and SBA offices are key resources. I am
currently working on a new business plan and will be
seeking investors at some point in the near future,” she
says. “Also, networking is even more crucial now. The
Chamber of Commerce and local young professionals
groups have been very good for me.
“You never know who knows the person that will
give you a big break,” she relates solemnly. “I met the
security manager at the Bohemian on River Street at a
LASER WELDING MACHINE frequently used by students, such
as Bongsang Cho, Hsiang-Ting Yen and Seungjeon Paik, in
creating their jewelry.
PLUM FLOWER IMPRESSION brooch by Jiarui Lu, of white Buddhi
nut, Tagua nut, sterling silver, copper, twenty-three karat gold
leaf, ruby, fresh water pearls, at the Smithsonian Craft Show, 2013.
Photograph by Patrick R. Benesh-Liu.
found what you imagine the craft world to be like in
school and what it actually is are two different things.
From the friends she has made to her interaction with
customers, Yen has arrived at a more nuanced view as to
how the real world functions. She has learned how to
cost her work, make pieces in different price ranges, and
differentiate her production. “The way I price my work
is based on several factors: hours of labor, application of
the processes and techniques to each piece, the material
cost, and the rarity of the piece (one-of-a-kind, limited
edition, production),” she explains. “I’ll also take other
jewelry artists’ prices as a reference or discuss my prices
with other experienced jewelry artists.”
The college’s commitment to its students follows
them after graduation, with alumni contacts in every
major city, as well as several countries. Song personally
does what she can to chronicle the paths of her former
proteges; she teaches the senior year of jewelry in order
to connect with students and figure out what their
professional desires are and what opportunities, whether
from galleries, craft shows or industries, best suit them.
She is happy to announce that the majority of them go
on to successful careers in jewelrymaking or design.
This private institution has invested considerable
resources, human and material, into creating a place
where students can remake themselves, and acquire the
skills and mental acuity required to become successful
members of the arts and crafts community. As an
entrepreneurial venture in itself, SCAD puts all the
money it generates into improving its campuses and
faculty. Currently under the auspices of co-founder Paula
Wallace, the Savannah College of Art & Design appears
well-prepared to usher in a new age, where students can
develop in a journey of personal fulfillment.
65 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
networking event and through an introduction and a
few meetings, I am now the newest local artist in the
Grand Bohemian Gallery at the Mansion on Forsyth.”
Baird seeks to emphasize how making connections can
be completely happenstance, and important. “I find that
as soon as I show my jewelry to people at these events
the questions and referrals/recommendations start
flowing freely.” Her second recommendation is also
crucial. “Make a strong portfolio while in school and get
your work photographed professionally. It will serve
you for a good bit when you get out of school.” She
notes also that without your college’s facilities, it is
unlikely you will be able to make as complicated and
high-grade work as when you were in school.
Cho has had the good fortune and skill to be
accepted into some of the top craft shows in the country,
including the Philadelphia Craft Show, American Craft
Exposition and Smithsonian Craft Show. He lists how
different his experience has been as an exhibitor to when
he was a student attending with SCAD. “First of all, you
must make your own booth. And you have to think
about wholesale and retail. You need to consider
transportation, if you have a big booth design you have
to rent a truck and deliver your booth there. And also
you have the hotel, hotel room and food, and you will be
spending much time planning your display. Your
display is very important for sales. You need a pedestal,
and lighting. If you have good light, you sell more. I
firmly believe that.”
Yen has forged her own path towards becoming an
independent jeweler. She has also attended a number of
top tier craft shows, like the Philadelphia Craft Show,
American Craft Exposition and Craftboston, and has
66 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
the ornament bo okshelf
Anna Reynolds. 2013 In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart
Fashion. Royal Collection Trust: 299 pp., hardcover $75.00.
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Anna Reynolds, Aileen Ribeiro,
and Georgina Ripley. 2013 Robe. Royal Collection Trust: 49 pp.,
paperback £3.95.
Many exhibitions of Tudor and Stuart portraiture have
included dazzling representations of dress, but In Fine Style is the
first to bring fashion to the forefront. Combining both iconic
and little-known portraits from the British Royal Collection with
rare examples of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dress from
museums around the world, the exhibition and its sumptuous
catalogue celebrate the intersection of art and fashion in one of
the most ornamental periods of history.
Reynolds has pulled off a curatorial magic act, tracking down
surviving garments with an uncanny resemblance to those
portrayed in portraits: linen ruffs, leather jerkins, embroidered
gowns, and fringed gloves (but, alas, no codpieces). Portrait
busts capture the sculptural nature of Tudor and Stuart clothing;
genre scenes fill in the missing back and side views. These
artworks are complemented by information found in
contemporary diaries, etiquette books, letters, bills, and
inventories, which are so detailed that they have helped
historians identify sitters in paintings.
For the English elite, “rich clothing was not seen as a sign of
weakness and ostentation but as a legitimate and admirable
proclamation of an individual’s worth.” In 1588, the Earl of
Leicester paid more for a doublet than Shakespeare paid for a
house; Mary II ordered forty-three pairs of shoes in the autumn
of 1694 alone. Artists often reserved their most expensive
pigments for painting costume. Jewels were not an optional
accessory but essential for men and women alike; they were often
sewn directly onto garments. Little jewelry from the period
survives, however, making portraiture a doubly valuable record.
Men’s fashions “matched their female counterparts in
materials, expense and complexity of design and surface
decoration... Moreover, men were subject to similar manipulations
of the body to produce an ideal figure.” Padding and corseting
created broad shoulders and small waists. William III is often
considered reserved, but that reputation crumbles in the face of a
surviving pair of his knitted silk stockings in vivid green.
Many fashion trends of the time can be traced to individual
members of the royal family; Catharine of Aragon, for example,
introduced blackwork embroidery to England from Spain.
Fashion magazines did not yet exist, but familial and diplomatic
connections between the courts of Europe meant that portraits
were exchanged, transmitting styles internationally at the highest
levels of society.
Though there are “surprisingly few accounts of the process of
sitting for a portrait and choosing the clothing,” Reynolds
produces a fascinating chapter on artistic practices. Monarchs
sometimes had lackeys pose for portraits in their clothes to avoid
the tedium of multiple sittings. Reynolds makes judicious use of
artists’ preparatory drawings, with their revealing annotations
and precise records of dress details. She notes that “many
[painters] who excelled in depictions of clothing and accessories
had family backgrounds that would have exposed them to fabrics
or jewellery from an early age.” By the end of the period,
however, the precision of Nicholas Hilliard gave way to the
looser, impressionistic style of Anthony van Dyck, and “many
English portraits show their sitters self-consciously avoiding the
formality of court dress,” preferring amorphous draperies.
Other chapters examine masque costume, children’s dress,
and armor. There are detailed analyses of the most common
textiles and an extensive glossary. While Reynolds’ approach will
be familiar to fans of Aileen Ribeiro’s books, this period has not
been covered in depth before, and Reynolds was granted
unprecedented access to the royal treasures.
It is also worth seeking out Robe. Available at www.
royalcollection.org.uk, this instructive parody imagines what
Vogue might have looked like in the seventeenth century, with
headlines like “How to deal with smallpox scars” and “More ash
than cash: Your capsule wardrobe after the Great Fire.”
Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
Floor Kaspers. 2011 Beads from Briare. The story of a bead
revolution from France. Blurb, Marblings Publishing: 74 pp.,
$21.09 softbound, $1.99 digital in iPad format.
While most in the bead community believe Venice and the
Czechs were the important producers of glass beads for the
colonial trade, Kaspers provides strong evidence that the
Bapterosses factory in Briare, France, was just as much a major
player, by adapting a modified Prosser technique. The original
Prosser patent used a dry molding process, while Bapterosses
added cow milk to make a more workable paste, presumably
utilizing casein as a binder. Now beads, buttons and tiles could
be easily and cheaply made by the hundreds or more at a time,
without additional finishing. These products either looked like
porcelain or glass, depending upon the mixture of minerals used,
but all had a telltale equatorial band that is diagnostic, left by the
molding process.
Given the enormous profits in the bead trade, there was
fierce competition, and sometimes co-operation, among the
European producers, who had already edged out native makers
like the Indians. The author attempts to sort out who made
what, using bead sample cards, as the modified Prosser process
was used by the French, the Czechs and others. She also picked
through the former Bapterosses factory dumpsite, which is so
large that it is easily seen on Google Earth maps. Kaspers was
able to verify some of what was actually produced at Briare, by
beads she found herself, as well as from other collections of
discards. The thought of being able to collect in this bead
goldmine must be tantalizing, as it was to me.
Many of the Briare beads and ornaments would not be
regarded as collectible, but Bapterosses did make many
adaptations or copies of jewelry that were important to their
native clients, like talhakimt. These were originally handmade of
agate by Indians, then in more efficient Idar-Oberstein
workshops, often of Brazilian agate and finally molded in large
numbers, sizes and colors by the Prosser method. One molded
lion’s tooth is shown but not the equally rare examples of Arca
shell imitations, which are most likely also a product of Briare.
Floor Kaspers has written an informative and readable book
on an important contributor to the worldwide bead trade, which
was at its peak from about 1850 to 1950. While others have
covered Bapterosses, she has brought together information
from diverse sources, as well as from her own research.
Robert K. Liu
Diana Friedberg. 2013 World on a String. A Companion for Bead
Lovers. Blurb: 444 pp., softbound $45.00.
Diana Friedberg, originally from South Africa, is well-known
as the producer, cinematographer and editor of World on a
String, a five-part series of DVDs on beads worldwide. With
funding from the Bead Society of Los Angeles and many other
organizations/individuals, written and narrated by her husband
Lionel, and coproduced by Adel Boehm-Mabe of the same
society, this series spanned from 2005 to 2008. Friedberg spent a
decade on the project, traveling to some forty countries for the
filming, as shown by the map of the locations where she filmed.
The experiences and imagery she captured must have provided
the ample inspiration and material for her book of the same title.
Largely pictorial, her book of over four hundred pages is a
rich amalgam of still images from her travels around the world
and studio photography by Joel Lipton of clothed and nude
models wearing jewelry. The reproduction quality of the
photographs is excellent, with the book having been printed in
China, instead of an on-demand digital printing. Many of the
necklaces are by California designers, including Friedberg herself.
Ethnographic beads and jewelry, contemporary artist-made
beads and artisanal-made beads and ornaments are used
throughout her volume. She covers essentially all the materials
now used for beads in the world marketplace.
I especially liked her many images of bead production around
the world, as well as bead markets and places where materials for
beads are gathered or mined. For example, the photographs for
the making of bauxite beads in Ghana are the most thorough so
far published, as are those for powderglass beadmaking in the
same country. These photographs not only enrich the book, but
provide a very concrete lesson as to how beads are a worldwide
phenomenon that connect all of us in the bead community.
While there is little text, those with an understanding of tools and
techniques can glean considerable information on how beads are
made. No other bead book has collected all these images together,
which makes a pretty heady visual feast.
Diana Friedberg’s book serves well as a travelogue for where
contemporary beads or bead materials are produced, as well
as a source of inspiration for those who are necklace designers.
Undoubtedly her bead DVDs are a good complement to this
book. Few of us have an opportunity to travel the world in
pursuit of our passion.
Robert K. Liu
67 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
the ornament bo okshelf
jewelry arts Carolyn L. E. Benesh
Variations On A Theme
Gregore Morin
Twenty-Five Years of Design from the
American Jewelry Design Council
68 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
C
losing February 22, 2014, there is still plenty of
time to make it over to New York City’s Forbes
Galleries to view its latest installation of jewelry.
Produced by forty designers, all members of the American
Jewelry Design Council, the jewelry is an exquisite
presentation of their expertise. The designers professional
careers have been notable for their emphasis on creativity,
originality and excellence. Each one-of-a-kind piece on
display is the result of a thematic design project with
inspirational topics and is a selection from the very first
in 1996 through 2013. The concepts have ranged from the
Mona Lisa as a subject to Cube, Wheel, Key, Fold, Sphere,
Water, Spiral, Ice, and Flight among others. The project’s
goal is to stimulate and challenge the artist members to
devise jewelry from a unique perspective and outside
the box of their more well-known creations. Introduced
at the major jewelry trade shows, the innovative design
projects join the permanent collection established by the
AJDC, then go on to be shown at museums and galleries
throughout North America.
Most of the designers invited to join AJDC are masters
who largely work in high karat gold, sterling silver and
precious gemstones. The artists have received many
national and international awards and widely exhibit their
hand-fabricated jewelry. Dedicated to the excellence of
their craft, they explore content as well as the surface
possibilities of the expensive metals and gemstones
utilized in their refined and elegantly realized works.
Formed in 1988, the nonprofit organization has
sought to acknowledge and support jewelry design as an
artform and its mission statement emphasizes how it “is
committed to raising the awareness of the jewelry trade,
the art community, the media and the public about the
aesthetic value of artistic fine jewelry.”
Cornelia Goldsmith
John Iversen
Alan Revere
Mark Schneider
Geoffrey Giles
Christo Kiffer
Todd Reed
Petra Class
Mark Patterson
69 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Jennifer Rabe Morin
communities Robert K. Liu
Tucson
Marketplace
ancient and ethnographic
W
70 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
hile we frequently covered the Tucson shows in
the past, in recent years we have been absent.
This article is my re-entry into those of the
thirty-eight shows which carry ancient and ethnographic
jewelry, which run from the end of January into February
each year. The majority of the events are oriented towards
gems and minerals; since the show guides do not have
comprehensive category listings, visitors need to research
which shows have vendors of ancient or ethnic wares.
Reading Floor Kasper’s (2012) Tucson guide is a pleasant
and informative way to learn about the shows in general;
carefully prepare before going, choose those shows that you
want to visit and keep to a budget. We went only to the
Grant Inn (GIGM), the Gem Mall (GM) and African Art
Village due to time constraints. The first two shows have
many vendors of interest, while all from the last show carry
ethnographica. It is not possible to visit all the shows, even
if one had the time or money. There are other venues with
a few vendors of ancient or ethnic jewelry, like the Sumareh
brothers with African beads at the To Bead True Blue shows,
but the number of such vendors has decreased compared to
the past. The recent and ongoing domestic and international
economic recessions, the rise of internet commerce and the
aging of collector populations have all impacted this market.
Ancient ornaments are mostly of Middle Eastern or east
Asian origins, and ethnographic beads or jewelry are from
these same regions in addition to Africa. The Grant Inn and
the Gem Mall offer excellent sources of ancient and ethnic
ornaments from established dealers, like Ancient Beads and
Artefacts, Silk Road Treasures, Shamballa, Joe Loux, Kamol,
Philip Mertens, and Coup de Foundre, as well as those
listed in the photographs. Some dealers of African art are
at the Gem Mall while those at the African Art Village are
almost entirely African, except a few like Stephen Cohn of
Bwanacon, who also carries Central American wares.
Asians, including Chinese, Taiwanese, east Indians, and
others from the Indian subcontinent are among the
majority of vendors at Tucson. Now, Asians are also the
leading buyers of ethnographic and ancient material.
Termed backflow fervor by Chinese bead books author Zhu
Xiao Li, it is the buying back of artifacts sold to the West
during the 1970s to the late 1990s, possibly the early 2000s.
Personal observation, talking with dealers, collectors and
recent auction prices in China support this. Prices of dZi,
pumtek and Tibetan coral and amber have skyrocketed. A
longtime collector of Iranian glass beads reports the
exporting of such ornaments to China, Thailand and Japan,
as well as Chinese coming to Iran to buy antiquities. Pam
Najdowski of Textile Treasures knows of a number of
Chinese setting up private museums, which had occurred
decades earlier in countries like Japan and South Korea.
This trend reflects the growing affluence in east Asia, and
their desire to acquire collectibles or their own cultural
artifacts that are believed to have lasting economic,
aesthetic or religious values.
SUGGESTED READING
Kaspers, F. 2012 Beads from Tucson. Where the world meets for beads, stones and
jewelry. Blurb, Marblings Publishing: 113 p.
PATRICK R. BENESH-LIU, BASSEM ELIAS, ROBERT K. LIU, THOMAS STRICKER, AND JOYCE HOLLAWAY at Ancient Beads and Artefacts booth, the
Ballroom, GIGM Show, Tucson. With only two other exhibitors (Silk Road Treasures and Bill Boss, formerly Tika), these vendors had the largest
selection of ancient beads and ornaments at Tucson. Bassem Elias, Hassan Jan Khan and Thomas Stricker have formed the Ethnographic Group,
to promote and sell ethnographic and ancient ornaments/artifacts. Photograph by Silk Road Treasures. MUSA, AFRICAN VILLAGE; he is from
Gambia but lives in Ghana and Los Angeles. He has clients for collectible beads, such as bodoms, which sell for five hundred to eight hundred
dollars. While he imports beads, Musa also exports watches and T-shirts to Africa. Photographs by Patrick R. Benesh-Liu, Robert K. Liu.
SILK ROAD TREASURES displayed a huge selection of Middle Eastern ancient beads, including these attractive Islamic glass beads. PHILIP
MERTENS of San Diego, California; this display case holds a rich array of ethnographic jewelry from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Note
the basket with Tuareg silver jewelry and pierced conus disks. CHINESE SILVER HEADDRESS with remnants of Kingfisher feather appliqué,
found in Indonesia, seen at Textile Treasures.
CARVER DANNY LOPACKI in conversation, while his wife Suzi looks on. Such communication is often intense and informative. PACIFIC
ARTIFACTS/LESLEY ANNE MARTIN at GIGM show; a group of kina, gold lip oyster shell breast ornaments from Papua New Guinea, some set
in resin and decorated with red ochre. HENRY, SOPHIA AND ADA CHIU OF ACME DESIGNS at the Chinese New Year dinner of NCAJA; we
were their guests, for a fun-filled ending to a week in Tucson.
71 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
TEXTILE TREASURES Miao robe with dragons; Pam Najdowski carries both Chinese minority textiles and their silver jewelry. ANTIQUE BODOM
BEADS from Ghana, shown by Musa for collector clients. One Japanese collector has acquired two hundred bodom beads from him. He
also buys for clients in Africa. TIGER TIGER’S large vintage Chinese glass beads, some with unusual decorations, including mosaic canes.
These are most likely for minorities’ use and found in southwest China, possibly Yunnan.
73 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Continued from page 31.
MASSACHUSETTS
WORKSHOPS
Adver tise your wor kshops
in Ornament
REVERE ACADEMY OF JEWELRY ARTS
TAKE YOUR JEWELRY TO THE NEXT LEVEL!
Our passionate instructors share their love for the
ancient art of jewelry making with students at all levels.
Learn hands-on skills in state-of-the art studios in
our 3-day classes on Jewelry Design, Fabrication, Wax,
Casting, Setting, and more, plus extended Diploma
programs. 415-391-4179; 785 Market St. #900,
San Francisco, CA 94103; www.revereacademy.com.
WILLIAM HOLLAND SCHOOL OF LAPIDARY ARTS
Week-long beginner and advanced classes: beading,
baskets, cabochons, silver casting, chain making, cold
connections, enameling, faceting, gem id, gold, intarsia,
lampwork beads, mineral id, opals, PMC silver, polymer
clay, photography for jewelry, scrimshaw, silver, stained
glass, and wire wrapping. www.lapidaryschool.org,
P.O. Box 980, 230 Lapidary Lane, Young Harris,
GA 30582, 706.379.2126. [email protected].
74 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
THE RANCH CENTER FOR ARTS & CRAFT
Fibers, Metals, Encaustics – and more! An exceptional
learning environment: small classes; awesome setting;
well-equipped studios; great B & B – just North of
Seattle. 2014 Master Classes include: Nancy Megan
Corwin, Jennifer Stenhouse, Chris Nelson, Mary
Hettmansperger, Alison Antleman, Michael Marx,
Ford Hallam, Gail Nelson, Ray Cover, Sandy Webster,
Deb Karash, Gail Crosman Moore, Valentin Yotkov,
Wanaree Tanner, Jenny Mendes, Fred Zweig, Carol
Milne, Jana Roberts Benson, Kari Minnick, Randi
Harper and more. www.ArtatTheRanch.com and
on Facebook.
CRAFTBOSTON presents its Spring Show from April 4 – 6,
2014. Craftboston Spring is a selective display of ninety artists
presented at The Cyclorama in The Boston Center for the Arts.
Browse handmade wares from all the traditional media. Enjoy a
variety of lectures, as well as the Craft Under $100 program. The
preview party for Craftboston Spring takes place April 3.
www.societyofcrafts.org.
PARADISE CITY ARTS FESTIVAL hosts its seventeenth
Marlborough show from March 22 – 24, 2014. One hundred
seventy-five of the nation’s craftsmen and artists show their
newest work. The event also features live performances from a
variety of musicians and various edibles. Another show will be
held in Northampton from May 24 – 26.
www.paradisecityarts.com.
MINNESOTA
THE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICAN GOLDSMITHS hosts its
2014 SNAG Conference in Minneapolis from April 23 – 26. With
the general demise of America’s traditional industries, a shift in
social consciousness has emerged from the excesses and
dehumanization of the global market, leading to the resurgence of
people buying locally made objects and supporting their
communities. Titled From Grains to Gold, SNAG’s forty-third
annual conference will explore the relationship between the maker
and the materials at a time when the materials, techniques and
processes are rapidly changing, and examine the growing trends of
consumers’ desire for the “hand-made” and—most importantly—
what it really means to be “hand-made” in the twenty-first century.
www.snagmetalsmith.org/conferences/meta-mosaic.
NEW YORK
MANUFACTURING JEWELERS & SUPPLIERS OF AMERICA
presents the MJSA Expo from March 9 – 11, 2014. The show is a
marketplace for many jewelrymaking tools and products, such as
bench tools, laser welders, casting machines, alloys, CAD/CAM
systems, gemstones and beads, component parts, and stamping
equipment. It also features subcontractors and business services.
Gemstones and beads are also on sale.
www.mjsa.org.
PENNSYLVANIA
SUGARLOAF CRAFT FESTIVAL hosts its Oaks show in the
Greater Philadelphia Expo Center from March 14 – 16, 2014.
More than two hundred fifty artists will sell work in the
traditional craft media, including photography and items for the
garden. The show will also introduce new and emerging artists
showcasing the latest trends in handmade fashion and
accessories, statement jewelry and fine art. Sugarloaf will also be
presenting their Somerset show at the Garden State Exhibit
Center from March 21 – 23. Both festivals will feature interactive
demonstrations with master craftspeople.
www.sugarloafcrafts.com/schedule.html.
RHODE ISLAND
THE HANDWEAVER’S GUILD OF AMERICA holds its
Convergence 2014 Conference from July 14 – 19 in Providence.
Join thousands of fiber enthusiasts and hundreds of vendors from
all over the world, exhibiting and sharing their knowledge. The
conference’s classes include novice to advanced instruction in a
variety of fiber techniques, such as weaving, spinning, dyeing,
basketry, and feltmaking, among others.
THE JEWELRY TRAINING CENTER
A school for jewelers and jewelry enthusiasts. Courses
from 1 to 24 weeks in: Jewelry Fabrication, Repair, Stone
Setting, Gemology, Appraisal and Design. We specialize
in tool use and modification, labor cost assessment and
retail pricing. Housing and Lodging nearby. Located in
beautiful Colorado Springs, CO, 877.566.9582.
www.KnowJTC.com.
www.weavespindye.org.
WASHINGTON
THE BELLEVUE ARTS MUSEUM presents its ARTSfair on July 25
– 27, 2014. The show will have over three hundred juried artists
from around the continent showcase handmade craft and fine art.
In addition, there will be community activities such as KIDSfair,
BAM exhibitions, and public installations.
www.bellevuearts.org/fair.
FLORIDA
CRAFTS AMERICA hosts its Palm Beach Fine Craft Show from
February 28 through March 2, 2014. Works in all the traditional
media will be sold by nearly two hundred of the nation’s top
contemporary craft artists. All weekend there will be additional
events; special exhibitions, artist’s talks and fashion shows.
www.craftsamericashows.com.
CHINA
THE WORLD SHIBORI NETWORK announces its ninth Annual
International Shibori Symposium taking place from October 31
through November 4, 2014. The event will be co-hosted with the
China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou. Participants will be
able to attend various exhibitions, tours, lectures, workshops, and
a fashion show.
WORKSHOPS WITH HEATHER TRIMLETT
Ongoing in the San Diego studio, private and group
Glass Beadmaking classes. Blue Dolphin, 8 week
Intermediate classes. February 7 & 8: Stringer
Control and Design with Holly Cooper. April 8-12:
Nokomis, FL. We can do it all! Pick your class at
www.beadcamp.com June 14-15: St. Louis, MO. Big
Hole Beads, Disks, Twists and Polishing. Purchase
tools and online tutorials in the new store.
619.561.9168. www.heathertrimlett.com.
GLASS BEADMAKING KRISTINA LOGAN
Master Class DVD on sale! Produced by Corning
M useum o f Gl ass: B eadm aki ng, c o ld wo r kin g,
incorporating glass and silverwork. Reserve for January
14-18: Nokomis, FL. Beadcamp: 5-day Immersion in
Beadmaking! February 10-15: Corning Museum of
Glass, Beadmaking: Expanding Your Skills. March 20-22:
Chicago, IL 2014 GAS Conference. Kristina will be doing
demonstrations during the conference. We will see you
there. www.kristinalogan.com, www.cmog.org.
www.shibori.org.
THE TEXTILE SOCIETY OF AMERICA holds a new TSA Study
Tour entitled “Textiles of Laos & Cambodia: Traditions and
Transitions” from May 24 through June 5, 2014. Textile artisans
throughout the world face challenges in honoring their rich
cultural traditions while also engaging with new domestic and
international markets. In Laos and Cambodia there will be the
unique opportunity to see the old and the new and to engage
with artisan organizations that are achieving balance between the
two. In this small-group tour, specially organized for the Textile
Society of America, ten days will be spent exploring the vibrant
textile traditions of Laos and Cambodia in cultural context—past
and present.
www.textilesocietyofamerica.org/events.
GENEVIEVE FLYNN STUDIO
2014 Workshops: Jewelry technique classes offered
throughout the year. One on one instruction available.
Introductory enameling, beginning silversmithing,
gypsy and prong stone setting. Reserve now. March
28-30: Charity Hall, Drawing & Painting Techniques
in Enamels. May 9-11: Alison Antelman, Custom Clasps.
June 2014: Fabrizio Acquafresca, Chasing & Repoussé.
September 22-26: Barbara Minor, Surface Designs with
Opaque Enamels. Studio open from Tuesday through
Saturday. Set up an appointment. Tools and materials
for sale. Look for more visiting artists in 2014. Mention
this ad for a 10% discount. www.genevieveflynn.com.
75 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
INTERNATIONAL
76 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation 1.
Publication Title: Ornament. 2. Publication No.: 478-570.
3. Filing Date: October 1, 2013. 4. Issue Frequency: Monthly
in October, December, March, May, July. 5. No. of Issues
Published Annually: 5. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $33.90.
7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication:
P.O. Box 2349, San Marcos, San Diego County, CA 920792349. Physical location: 1230 Keystone Way, Vista, CA 920818316. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General
Business Offices of Publisher: P.O. Box 2349, San Marcos, CA
92079-2349. 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Address
of Publisher, Editor and Managing Editor: Publisher: Robert
K. Liu, P.O. Box 2349, San Marcos, CA 92079-2349; Editor:
Robert K. Liu, P.O. Box 2349, San Marcos, CA 92079-2349;
Managing Editor: Carolyn L.E. Benesh, P.O. Box 2349, San
Marcos, CA 92079-2349. 10. Owner: Ornament, Inc., P.O.
Box 2349, San Marcos, CA 92079-2349; Robert K. Liu, P.O.
Box 2349, San Marcos, CA 92079-2349; Carolyn L.E. Benesh,
P.O. Box 2349, San Marcos, CA 92079-2349. 11. Known
Bondholders, Mortgages, and Other Security Holders: None.
12. Not applicable. 13. Publication Title: Ornament. 14.
Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: September 1, 2013.
15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: a) Total Number of
Copies: Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12
Months; Actual No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest
to Filing Date: 5,172, 4,808; b) Paid Circulation: 1) Mailed
Outside-County Mail Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541:
5,412, 4,906; 2) Mailed In-County Subscriptions: Stated on
PS Form 3541 N/A, N/A; 3) Paid Distribution Outside the
Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street
Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside
USPS: 4,323, 3,964; 4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of
Mail Through the USPS: N/A, N/A; c) Total Paid Distribution:
4,868, 4,406; d) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies
Included on PS Form 3541: 1) 0, 0; (2) Free or Nominal Rate
In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: N/A, N/A; 3)
Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through
the USPS: 491, 708; 4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution
Outside the Mail: 1,383, 800; e) Total Free or Nominal Rate
Distribution: 1,874, 1,508; f) Total Distribution: 17,445,
16,884; g) Copies Not Distributed 655, 616; h) Total: 11,609
10,378 i) Percent Paid: 83.5%, 82.43%. 16. This Statement of
Ownership will be printed in the December 1, 2013 issue of
this publication. 17. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher,
Business Manager, or Owner: Carolyn L.E. Benesh, Managing
Editor. Date: October 1, 2013.
Cla ssified s
Ornament Classifieds are priced at $2.50 per word. Minimum advertisement is
twenty-five words. Full payment is due with order. Call or email for deadlines.
Send to Ornament, P. O. Box 2349, San Marcos, CA 92079-2349. 760.599.0222;
[email protected]. Visit our website: ornamentmagazine.com.
Beads, Jewelry and Supplies
Supplies for Weaving, Coiling, Embellishing: Irish waxed linen thread,
mizuhiki, bead wire, basketweaving supplies, much more! Royalwood
Ltd., 517-Orn Woodville Rd., Mansfield, Ohio 44907. 800.526.1630.
www.RoyalwoodLtd.com. Catalog $2.00.
The Black Bead: Wonderful Bead Store, fantastic selection, large inventory,
knowledgeable staff. Buy your beads and then relax on nearby beach while
you create! 5003 Newport Ave., San Diego, CA. Lynn 619.222.2115.
Collectible Beads: By Robert K. Liu. A rich and exciting journey of discovery,
exploring and documenting the rise and development of a unique passion.
Beautifully illustrated. 256 pages in full color, with 310 photographs; $100. Plus
shipping and receive a free bonus, The Collectors’ Sourcebook. Less than
20 copies remain. www.ornamentmagazine.com or 760.599.0222.
Classes & Workshops
Taos School of Metalsmithing: Beginning through advanced and individual
study workshops all year round. www.taosjewelryschool.com; Phone:
505.758.0207; P.O. Box 3005, Taos, New Mexico 87571.
Craft Shows & Fairs
44th Annual Peters Valley Fine Craft Fair, NJ: 60 miles outside of NYC.
Sept. 27 - 28, 2014. APPLICATIONS DUE April 1, 2014. 3 Jurors. 150 artists.
Enclosed/indoor spaces. Apply: www.zapplication.org; (973) 948-5200;
www.petersvalley.org.
Opportunity
TOP JEWELS 2014 NATIONAL JEWELRY DESIGN EXHIBITION: May 16 to
June 28, 2014 - DURANGO, CO CALL FOR ENTRIES at CaFÉ: www.callforentry.
org. Deadline: April 11, 2014 Awards: $5000. Master Workshops with Tim
McCreight, Valerie Hector, Deb Karash and Lisa & Scott Cylinder.
More info at: www.durangoarts.org/events.
Travel
Turkey and Textiles!: Canoe Textile Tour’s Spring 2014 trip will be May 21 June 7. Only take 12 people. Visit my rug and textile dealers, see the sights, eat
great Turkish food, meet the people. Call 502.561.1234 or email lynncanoetextiles@
yahoo.com for brochure. www.canoetextileimports.com.
Robert Diamante, Inc: Photography, design, and consultation services for artisans,
specializing in jewelry. 2014 will be a great year to promote your business, let
me help you strategize! 207.874.0587; www.robertdiamante.com.
Photography For Artists - Professional and affordable photography. Rather be
making art than photographing it? I can help! Learn more at (607) 733-0356 or
www.arcphotographicimages.com owner Ann Cady. Special package pricing
available for 2014, save money all year long. Contact me for details.
77 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
Photography
Advert iser s
Help support the Arts and Artists by letting our advertisers
know that you saw their advertisement in Ornament.
79
Acme Designs Corp. (NY)
78
Ad Adornments (IL)
78
Advertise, Ornament (CA)
73
African Arts (CA)
14
Amy Roper Lyons (NJ)
Kristina Logan (NH)
9
Leekan Designs (NY)
78
1
13
Lost Cities (CA)
Marianne Hunter (CA)
Melanie Muir (SCOTLAND)
76
Back Issues, Ornament (CA)
5
Ornament (CA)
12
Bead and Boutique Arts Show (CA)
15
Pachamama (NM)
78
Bead Paradise (OH)
12
Pasadena Bead and Design Show (CA)
76
Beads Galore International (AZ)
76
Bead Society of Greater Washington (DC)
13
Patricia Palson (NH)
76
Bead Society of Los Angeles (CA)
10
Peter’s Valley School of Craft (NJ)
4
Celie Fago (VT)
4
9
Pat Pruitt (NM)
Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show (PA)
13
CF Originals (CA)
14
Rachel Carren (MD)
73
Chris’s Cables (LA)
74
(The) Ranch (WA)
bc
Collectible Beads (CA)
76
Reactive Metals Studio (AZ)
73
Craft Emergency Relief Fund (VT)
74
Revere Academy of Jewelry (CA)
ifc
8
Craft in America (CA)
9
Rings & Things (WA)
Craft in America Center (CA)
72
14
Diana Kirkpatrick (FL)
15
Rita Okrent Collection (CA)
77
(The) Down the Street Bead Show (FL)
76
SDSU Art Council (CA)
14
Elaine Sonne (CA)
77
South Pacific Wholesale (VT)
14
Elizabeth Garvin (NY)
1
Smithsonian Craft Show (DC)
15
(The) Ethnographic Group (CA)
8
SNAG, Society of North American
ibc
Fire Mountain Gems (OR)
8
Rio Grande (NM)
Goldsmiths (OR)
Freehand Gallery (CA)
73
78
Gallery Five (FL)
11
Suzi Click (CA)
75
Genevieve Flynn (MO)
13
TASART (AZ)
11
Gustav Reyes (IL)
14
Textile Treasures (NM)
75
Heather Trimlett (CA)
10
Idyllwild Arts (CA)
12
75
Jewelry Training Center (CO)
12
(The) Tucson Bead Show (CA)
77
Joseph P. Stachura Co. (MA)
13
Virgo Moon (CA)
Judith Neugebauer (PA)
74
William Holland School of
1
13
78 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
75
Ken Loeber (WI)
9
Surface Design (CA)
Tiger Tiger (AZ)
To Bead True Blue (CA)
Lapidary Arts (GA)
Ornament (ISSN 0148-3897) is published five times per year (October, December, March, May, July) by Ornament, Inc. Direct
editorial, advertising and marketing communications to P. O. Box 2349, San Marcos, CA 92079-2349. Packages sent by FedEx,
UPS or other carriers should be shipped to 1230 Keystone Way, Vista, CA 92081. Subscription service: 800.888.8950;
all other services, editorial and advertising: 760.599.0222; fax: 760.599.0228; email: ornament@ornamentmagazine.
com; www.ornamentmagazine.com. While every care will be taken, Ornament is not responsible for damage or loss
of submissions or manuscripts. All materials, whether solicited or unsolicited, are to be accompanied by return
postage and packaging. Manuscripts are accepted with authors’ acknowledgment that Ornament will make any
editorial revisions it deems appropriate and without prior review by contributors. Opinions expressed by contributors and
advertisers are not necessarily t h o s e o f Ornament. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission
is prohibited. Subscriptions are $29.99 per year in the United States. All other countries $44.99. Periodicals postage (USPS
478-570) paid at Vista, California and at additional mailing offices. Copyright ©2013 by Ornament, Incorporated. All rights
reserved: Ornament Vol. 37, No. 1, 2013. Printed in U.S.A. Postmaster: Send address changes to Ornament, P. O. Box
469112 Escondido, CA 92046.
Se
eu
si
so
na
t th
eG
em
AC
ME
Acme
Designs Corp.
Ma
ll
79 ORNAMENT 36.2.2012
nT
uc
4 7-0 9 30T H S TR EE T #502, LON G I SL AN D CITY, N.Y. 111 01
T EL : 7 18 .38 3 .226 3
F AX : 7 18 .3 83 .2 268
[email protected]
C atal og $10, r ef un de d w it h first p urch ase • Wh ol e sa l e On l y • Mi n i mu m o rd e r $ 50 . 00
t
p
i
r
c
s
t
op s
inventions, with no one left untouched by them and
seemingly nothing remaining the same. We live in a
time that requires a refreshed kind of observance and
attentiveness to how we live, work and play; how we
regard the world about us and the worlds beyond us;
how we learn to conduct our commerce, politics and
technologies. Everything is being scrutinized as perhaps
never before.
from the editors
Dear Ornament Reader,
80 ORNAMENT 37.1.2013
The power of making and the importance of being
skilled in your life choices, whether designing a piece of
jewelry, constructing an item of clothing, or publishing a
magazine, is an essential subtext of each issue of Ornament.
Making is a universal aspect of being human, marks
our humanity from other lifeforms on our planet, and is
probably one of the determinant forces in our evolution
as a species. It crosses all world cultures and is a connective
tissue that unites our history and peoples. But making
comes with a warning that we must be vigilant with what
we choose to do. The double face of Janus comes to
mind and its symbology reaches into the very center
of our extraordinary existence as beings: our ability to
both create and destroy. The artists we cover are firmly
on the side of life, in what they do and how they live
and, they among the multitudes, are helping us evolve
to the betterment of the Earth we so tenuously and
tenaciously inhabit.
The forces of change that are pulsing through the
early decades of the twenty-first century seem to be
gathering force and sometimes can seem daunting. We
have experienced an explosion of information and
Even with our new challenges, the world still manages
to value the artist’s search for the new and the unknown,
explorers they be, armed with the instruments of their
particular tools and methods. It is because artists must
begin with their hands and use them to express an inner
nature that an important link is established between the
physical and the cosmic. Soetsu Yanagi has written that,
“Every artist knows that he is engaged in an encounter
with infinity and that work done with heart and hand is
ultimately worship of life itself.”
In times of transformation, there are basic things,
underpinnings of life, that must be kept, continued and
encouraged, for without them we are unmoored, lost at
sea with no anchor. It has always been our belief that an
unwavering dedication to the propagation of craft, the
handmade, is just such a vital element. The beauty of
craft is an expression of humanity’s limitless potential,
a blue sky with no ceiling, with bright suns and glowing
moons that beckon us to grow and evolve, to create and
not destroy.
Welcome, and thank you for being part of our
community of fellow explorers, and for helping us
enjoy the seasons of our lives in this most astonishing
of places.
Discover the world of beads in one book.
256 pages, over 300 photographs of ancient,
contemporary and ethnographic beads, by
Ornament Coeditor Robert K. Liu.
Less than 20 copies left.
$100
Plus shipping charges
760.599.0222
Post Ofﬁce Box 2349
San Marcos, CA 92079
Preview Collectible Beads at
ornamentmagazine.com

PPCO Twist System - Ornament Magazine

Transcription

Similar documents

Robert Been - Chiricahua Gallery

All jewelry is designed and handcrafted by individuals with disabilities

This website was created for Bachendorf`s, a designer jewelry

efva attling - SWEA Los Angeles

Holiday Bazaar - Wayzata Schools

Free Event!

2012 FIRST PLACE WINNER BEST BRIDAL HIDALGO WINS A

Celebrity Guests

Jewelry Razzle-Dazzle

`Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the city, the Santa